Don't lie. He wasn't prosecuted for collecting rainwater. He was prosecuted for diverting and damning a stream that ran through his property, and then steadfastly refusing to correct it. Water law which is as old as the west says that's not allowed, because you don't own water just because it runs through your property.
Don't lie. He was not prosecuted for diverting and damming a stream that ran thru his property. He has made water channels on his own land and used this rain water off his own land to fill very large ponds as much as 20 feet deep that he created on his own land from rain water runoff on his own land. The cases are based upon his not having a permit to have the ponds.
That's very different to rooftop collection of rainwater .. which is legal. Once rain hits the ground, it plays a major role in the health of rivers and lakes. If we interfere with the passage of runoff, we impact same.
Correct, but he had not dammed water running thru his land. The claim he was prosecuted for collecting rain water is also false. He was prosecuted for making basically small lakes without the necessary permit. This were not small ponds. One of the damns is 20 feet tall and another 10 feet tall. I can see a safety hazard. I do not see that gathering water off of 170 acres would have a substantive effect on rivers and lakes. Depending how porous the ground is, what he is doing may not actually have any effect once the ponds/small lakes are filled. Any water beyond that still would go to rivers and lakes - and possibly more than without those ponds as otherwise rain might have just been absorbed into his land. Channeling the water to ponds - that then overlow - might actually add more water to rivers and lakes off his lan.
The video tells of worse examples of police using SWAT teams to attack what they basically see as counter culture behavior.
Not true. Its illegal to varying extents to collect rainwater from your roof in Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Illinois, Idaho. In fact, its written in the Colorado state constitution that rainwater cannot be collected for personal use, rainwater is owned by the state. That just changed this month, its now legal to store up to 110 gallons of rooftop runoff (a trivial amount). More than that and you break the law.
You typically own the rights to water that runs through your property via riparian rights which is the most typical form of ownership. It does allow the use of water depending on CCR restrictions on your deed. You may even have other rights such as the right to sell it. Apparently this guy ran afoul of his granted rights. In many cases one does not even own the rights to minerals on their own land.
