04-17-2006, 02:58 PM
[cool][#0000ff]Was that the Teton? Great trout stream. Fished it since I was a kid (with a stone fishing rod).[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That kind of stuff always gets my hackles up. Most folks figure that "water is water" and they can use it however they want. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The year before I left Arizona, to move back to Utah, there was a story about a rancher in rural Arizona that had a runin with the forest service. The farmer had a stock tank into which he pumped water for his horses and cattle. Arizona was in the middle of a drought, and he paid dearly for the water he accessed from another farmer's well. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The conflict? There was a small grass fire a few miles from the farmer's ranch and a forest service helicopter kept dropping their bucket into the farmer's pond for water to drop on the fire...without authorization or a permit. They could have flown only a couple of minutes in another direction to get water from a big lake on government land.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The helicopter pilots "flipped off" the farmer when he tried to wave them off, so he brought out his shotgun and peppered the helicopter with birdshot. It did no damage, but he was hauled into court and got a federal charge out of it...and no compensation for draining his high priced water from his stock tank.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are far too many stories of private companies and government agencies either appropriating water from vulnerable sources or dumping harmful agents into fragile environments. Seems like nobody cares and nobody will take responsibility for it.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That kind of stuff always gets my hackles up. Most folks figure that "water is water" and they can use it however they want. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The year before I left Arizona, to move back to Utah, there was a story about a rancher in rural Arizona that had a runin with the forest service. The farmer had a stock tank into which he pumped water for his horses and cattle. Arizona was in the middle of a drought, and he paid dearly for the water he accessed from another farmer's well. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The conflict? There was a small grass fire a few miles from the farmer's ranch and a forest service helicopter kept dropping their bucket into the farmer's pond for water to drop on the fire...without authorization or a permit. They could have flown only a couple of minutes in another direction to get water from a big lake on government land.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]The helicopter pilots "flipped off" the farmer when he tried to wave them off, so he brought out his shotgun and peppered the helicopter with birdshot. It did no damage, but he was hauled into court and got a federal charge out of it...and no compensation for draining his high priced water from his stock tank.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]There are far too many stories of private companies and government agencies either appropriating water from vulnerable sources or dumping harmful agents into fragile environments. Seems like nobody cares and nobody will take responsibility for it.[/#0000ff]
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