Endangered Earth > Geoengineering
Water Wars
thorfourwinds:
Monday, July 30, 2012
Rainwater Crimes: Man Gets Jail & Fines For Collecting On His Own Land
A case of the government seeking money and bondage from rural residents by purposely misconstruing an old law & bending definitions.
(CNSNews.com) – A rural Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater.
Gary Harrington had no idea that he was a water criminal under an obscure 1925 law until 2002 when state bureaucrats told him that his three reservoirs were illegal collection devices that were a crime against his community.
At first, Harrington complied and legally filed for three permits to keep the rainwater run-off within his 170-acre property, including one that had been on the property for 37 years.
According to Oregon water laws,
all water is publicly owned.
Therefore, anyone who wants to store any type of water on their property must first obtain a permit from state water managers.
However, it appears that the Oregon government is adamantly against its citizens storing and using their own source of water. Although his permits were approved in 2003, the state court arbitrarily reversed their decision and was subsequently backed up by a county Circuit Court judge who ruled that he had illegally “withdrawn the water at issue from appropriation other than for the City of Medford.” (Source)
Even if the city of Medford did legitimately own all the water, Harrington has good standing when he points out that the law mentions only streams and tributaries, not water run-off formulated from the clouds.
Clearly, the Oregon government is sending the message that if a resident wants water, it had better be with their approval and by their means. But Oregon isn't the only place instituting rainwater tyranny.
Western states such as Utah, Colorado, and Washington have long outlawed the practice, basically invoking the collectivist notion that the rainwater is ultimately communal, and to store it (hoard it) is a crime. Gary Harrington says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff. Source
Other countries have had uprisings over this issue. In 1999, mega corporation, Bechtel, the largest construction contractor in the United States and winner of rebuilding contracts after the leveling provided by Katrina and the invasion of Iraq, privatized the public water system in Cochabamba - Bolivia's third largest city. As reported at the time:
--- Quote ---Back in 1999, the private construction contractor Bechtel took over control of the public water system in Bolivia’s third largest city, Cochabamba.
The corporation then held a monopoly over this very basic human necessity and proceeded to raise rates by as much as 200 percent, far beyond what families could afford.
The law even said that people had to obtain a permit to collect rainwater! (that means even rainwater was privatized!)
This is a country where indigenous farming communities previously had their own water rights, but their water sources were converted into property to be bought and sold by international corporations.
When the company refused to lower rates, the people began to rise up and revolt against this injustice; they confronted Bechtel during five months of mobilization and managed to defeat them, breach the contract and change the law.
A 17-year-old boy named Victor Hugo Daza was killed in the protests along with four indigenous people from El Alto, while hundreds were injured. It was this popular uprising in Cochabamba that led to the election of their new president Evo Morales, the first ever indigenous head of state in Bolivia.
So Bechtel was thrown out of Bolivia, but months later they moved to do the exact same thing in Ecuador‘s largest city of Guayaquil. And in November 2001, they filed a lawsuit against Bolivia demanding $50 million, an amount which is just short of what the corporation makes in a day.
The case will be decided behind closed doors in a secret trade court at the World Bank headquarters in Washington; it will tell whether the people of South America’s poorest country will have to pay $50 million to one of the world’s most wealthy corporations.
--- End quote ---
Update: In 2006, Bechtel dropped their case against Bolivia.
Bechtel, a global engineering and construction company based in San Francisco, today reached agreement with the government of Bolivia, dropping a legal demand for $50 million after a revolt over privatizing water services in the city of Cochabamba forced the company out of Bolivia in April 2000.
Bechtel and its chief co-investor, Abengoa of Spain, had been seeking $25 million in damages and $25 million in lost profits in a case filed before a World Bank trade court, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Following four years of international public protest aimed at the companies, Bechtel and Abengoa agreed to abandon their case for a token payment.
--- Quote ---"Multinational corporations want to turn everything into a market," said Oscar Olivera, a leader in the Bolivian water revolt. "For indigenous people water is not a commodity, it is a common good. For Bolivia, this retreat by Bechtel means that the rights of the people are undeniable."
--- End quote ---
In 1997, the World Bank made privatization of the public water system of Bolivia’s third largest city, Cochabamba,
a condition of the country receiving further aid for water development.
That led, in September 1999, to a 40 year concession granted to a company led by Bechtel in a process with just one bidder. Within weeks of taking over the city’s water, Bechtel’s Bolivian company, Aguas del Tunari, raised rates by more than 50 percent and in some cases even higher.
The water price hikes were met with angry public protest. Cochabamba, a city of about 500,000 people, was shut down by general strikes three times.
In an effort to protect the Bechtel contract, the Bolivian government declared a state of martial law and began arresting protest leaders at their homes in the middle of the night.
In the case of Ecuador, thousands showed up to protest the corporate takeover of their innate right to use the water that falls upon their land. In some ways, what is happening in Oregon and other Western states is even worse than the privatization led by corporations like Bechtel.
Not only are resources and populations being exploited for financial gain, but as Mike Adams correctly points out for NaturalNews: sunlight and air also fall on your land, so where will this end if people don't stand up in defense of their most basic rights?
It is the very spirit of American ownership of private property and the right to self-determination that are being threatened. The ideology of collectivism is seeking in myriad ways to upend the foundation of America and criminalize independence. Hat's off to Harrington who embodies the spirit of true freedom and vows never to end the fight if his rights continue to get trampled.
--- Quote ---“When something is wrong, you just, as an American citizen, you have to put your foot down and say, ‘This is wrong; you just can’t take away anymore of my rights and from here on in, I’m going to fight it.”
--- End quote ---
There are several lines in the sand that should not be crossed within any country claiming to be rooted in freedom.
Revolt has happened in other nations subjected to the same level of tyranny who recognized that even without an American Constitution, this is a human rights issue that in fact has no boundaries.
The words of water criminal Gary Harrington ring clear that we'd do well to stand our ground on fundamental issues, unless we wish to give away our spirit along with our land:
"They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies. So, we as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail."
Main source for this article: Rainwater Crimes: Man Gets Jail & Fines For Collecting On His Own Land
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petrus4:
--- Quote from: thorfourwinds on August 03, 2012, 09:14:39 am ---It is the very spirit of American ownership of private property and the right to self-determination that are being threatened. The ideology of collectivism is seeking in myriad ways to upend the foundation of America and criminalize independence.
--- End quote ---
This is not about collectivism. The supposed collectivist/individualist conflict is a false dichotomy, and it will be used against you by the people who wish to do these sorts of things, if you let it. When the South Americans fought the Bechtel contract, there were 500,000. Were they not a collective?
So that is a positive form of collectivism. There are positive forms of individualism as well; but Americans in particular need to start realising that the corporations, and those involved with them, are not "individualists," to the degree that you think. What do you think a cartel is? What do you think a conspiracy is? What do you think the Bilderberg Group are?
They are people who collaborate and work as part of a conspiracy, to do things which serve their own interests, to the detriment of everyone else. They well know the value of working together as a group; the entire reason why they try and tell you that individualism is the only form of virtue, is precisely so that you can be rendered powerless by it.
Understand; the cabal have two sets of rules. One for them, and one for us. Belief in so-called rugged individualism, is meant for you; they don't believe a word of that. They know that it is suicidal. So they have trained you to think in a certain way, while they think in a different manner entirely. They use valid principles for destructive ends. We start winning when we likewise use said valid principles ourselves, but for positive, mutually beneficial ends.
thorfourwinds:
California supplies 50%
of the produce for the United States
The Federal government has told the CA farmers they will get ZERO water this year from the Sierra Mountains, the first time in history this has ever happened.
State of the Farm and Water Report for California; “It’s Just Not There.”
February 22, 2014
California supplies 50% of the food for the United States. The California farms that supply much of the nation’s produce are literally running out of water.
Farms use about 80 percent of the state's "developed water," or water that's moved from its natural source to other areas via pipes and aqueducts.
Maps indicate that the areas of California hardest hit by the mega-drought are those that grow a large percentage of America’s food.
Those regions include Monterey County, which produced nearly half of the lettuce and broccoli grown in the United States in 2012.
It’s not just vegetables that will be affected; nuts and fruits will be hit just as hard or harder.
“There will be thousands of acres of fruit and nut trees that will die this year because of lack of water,” David Sunding, a professor of natural resources at the University of California at Berkley, told the San Jose Mercury News. “The reduction in yield will drive up prices.”
The produce grown in the Golden State includes:
• 95 percent of America’s broccoli crop
• 90 percent of its tomatoes
• 91 percent of its grapes
• 74 percent of its lettuce
• 99 percent of its walnuts
• 99 percent of its almonds
• 98 percent of its pistachios
• 99 percent of its walnuts
• 92 percent of strawberries
Dear Reader, just how much do you depend on this (radioactive) produce from California in Your daily diet?
California produces 80 percent of the world’s almonds and areas like the Westlands Water District have made the switch from cotton to almonds to cash in on high demand. “But growing almonds in an arid climate requires lots of water,” writes Joaquin Palomino of the East Bay Express.
--- Quote ---“In fact, Westlands’ almond orchards suck up nearly 100 billion gallons of water a year. Cotton, by contrast, needs 40 percent less water per acre, and tomatoes require about half as much water as almonds. Also, unlike cotton and tomatoes, almonds are a ‘permanent’ crop, meaning the land they’re grown on can’t lie fallow when water is scarce.”
--- End quote ---
Almonds aren’t the only thirsty crop. The one that’s getting the most water in California is alfalfa and not all of it will be feeding the state’s dairy and meat industries, a lot of it is shipped overseas. Ag web reports that, “Exports of U.S. hay grew to more than 3.7 million tons in 2012, up sharply from 2.5 million in 2008.”
?
Container ships that arrive from Asia with electronics and other consumer goods are loaded for the return trip with compressed bales of hay grown in the Western US in some of the driest states in the country — Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
ACX was recently named the leading US exporter of alfalfa and grass hay for the third straight year by the Journal of Commerce. To help meet the growing overseas demand for hay, the company opened a facility in Goldsboro, NC, in 2012. (credit CATHERINE MERLO)
--- Quote ---“In specific regions, particularly the Imperial Valley of California, and the Columbia basin of Washington-Oregon, the percentage of alfalfa and grassy hays exported may be over 50% of production,” reported the UC Cooperative Extension’s Alfalfa and Forage News.
--- End quote ---
However,
China Rejects Hay Exports Due to GM Alfalfa Contamination | Natural Society
10 April 2014
The Chinese used to be quite confident that their hay was GMO free, but all that is about to change. Hay exported to the country from the US is currently in quarantine due to the detection of GMO traits, specifically of genetically modified alfalfa, according to a USDA spokesperson.
This isn’t a singular occurrence, either. Last year, a Washington State grower’s hay was rejected after it tested positive for GMO alfalfa. This doesn’t sit well with China, since all imported hay is supposed to be GMO-free. If the trend continues, they could boycott all US grown hay completely.
They aren’t willing to feed their livestock hay grown with Round Up Ready traits – yet for some reason, many US farmers still are.
Chinese officials are already preparing to implement more stringent testing thresholds to keep the GM alfalfa out of their imports.
A USDA representative, who declined to be identified, said:
“We understand that China has recently increased the frequency of its GE (genetically engineered) testing and has a zero tolerance for unapproved biotech traits.”
According to the spokesperson, the USDA has been working with authorities and the U.S. alfalfa industry to find out why ‘certified’ alfalfa has GM traits and to come to an agreement.
However, many industry officials are frustrated by the lack of information and the slow progress related to changing GMO testing sensitivity in hay, says Harry Kreeft, plant pathologist and nematologist with Western Laboratories in Parma, ID who conducts GMO and other testing for the Ag industry:
“Right now, everybody is absolutely grabbing at the dark,” explains Kreeft, “We don’t get any information from the USDA. We don’t get any information from the Chinese side. Our customers have no clue what’s going on.”
The current threshold of acceptance is 5% GMO by Chinese importers, but this could be tightened to 0.2%, and growers would be hard pressed to meet these standards with unintended cross-pollination along with the shady practices of GM companies who often grow ‘test’ fields of GM crops without regulatory approval.
The Chinese need hay, but they may look to other sources if they can’t rely on the US to provide exports that are GM-free. After all, we know China isn’t afraid to reject GMOs from the US or even burn shipment of GMO crops – the country has done it on multiple occasions.
thorfourwinds:
R Wayne Steiger
Published on Jan 16, 2017
We worry about things in space, we debate and hate over ideas of another planet or star against each other, we blast each other with our beliefs religious and all others. Yet while we spend our attention on these things, all the while the drumbeat of WAR goes on and is getting louder and WAR is coming.
Water shortages, food shortages, climate change and these are but the top three of an ever growing list of why war is enviable. In this video I show why it does not matter what we as a Species do, we cannot stop this, we invented it, we manufactured it and we have know it is coming. There are no simple answers or solutions and sadly there appears that a gleaming is upon our species.
Yet do I hope that we can awaken as many as possible and that future generations will possess the knowledge and understandings of our mistakes to their well being.
We have really messed this up people...
thorfourwinds:
REPORT: Nearly All Of U.S. Drinking Water Contaminated With Cancer Causing Chemicals
By Aaron Kesel
The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit research organization environmental watchdog, released a searchable database Thursday that shows almost 50,000 public water systems in the U.S. are contaminated with dozens of harmful chemicals.
Some of the chemicals found in your drinking water include – arsenic, hexavalent chromium, radiation, chloroform, perfluorooctanoic acid, Bromodichloromethane, Dichloroacetic acid, Barium, and Uranium; and that’s just scratching the surface of the 250-plus contaminants the group discovered.
EWG researchers spent the last two years collecting data from independent state agencies and the EPA for drinking water tests conducted from 2010 to 2015 by 48,712 water utilities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Researchers tested the utilities for approximately 500 different contaminants, finding a whopping 267 contaminations of Americans’ water supplies.
EWG’s database is an interactive map where you can click on each state and review their test results.
In the results are listed contaminants found above health guidelines and above legal limits.
A subsequent report released with the database noted that contaminants detected in the nation’s tap water included:
▪ 93 linked to an increased risk of cancer. More than 40,000 water systems had detections of known or likely carcinogens exceeding established federal or state health guidelines – levels that pose minimal but real health risks, but are not legally enforceable.
▪ 78 associated with brain and nervous system damage.
▪ 63 connected to developmental harm to children or fetuses.
▪ 45 linked to hormone disruption.
▪ 38 that may cause fertility problems.
▪ Chromium-6, made notorious by the film “Erin Brockovich.” This carcinogen, for which there are no federal regulations, was detected in the drinking water supplies serving 250 million Americans in all 50 states.
▪ 1,4-Dioxane, an unregulated compound that contaminates tap water supplies for 8.5 million people in 27 states at levels above those the EPA considers to pose a minimal cancer risk.
▪ Nitrate, chemical from animal waste or agricultural fertilizers, was detected in more than 1,800 water systems in 2015, serving 7 million people in 48 states above the level that research by the National Cancer Institute shows increases the risk of cancer – a level just half of the federal government’s legal limit for nitrate in drinking water.
“Legal is not safe,” argued Nneka Leiba, director of Healthy Living Science at the EWG. “In many cases, it’s far from safe.”
Overall, the organization found more than 250 million Americans are drinking water with “unsafe” levels of various contaminants.
A 2008 study by the National Toxicology Program found that chromium-6 in drinking water caused cancer in rats and mice that were exposed to the chemical.
EWG is urging consumers to use a drinking water filter to reduce the level of chemical intake in the human body. They’re also pressing the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to update their rules on chemical contaminants found in drinking water that “can pose what scientists say are serious health risks – and still be legal.”
“Americans deserve the fullest picture possible of what’s in their tap water,” EWG President Ken Cook said. “But they won’t get that information from the government or, in many cases, from their utilities. The only place they’ll find that is EWG’s drinking water report.”
“Just because your tap water gets a passing grade from the government doesn’t always mean it’s safe,” Cook added. “It’s time to stop basing environmental regulations on political or economic compromises, and instead listen to what scientists say about the long-term effects of toxic chemicals and empower Americans to protect themselves from pollutants even as they demand the protective action they deserve from government.”
It’s been 20 years since the EPA last passed any new drinking water regulations. Regardless, it’s clear that municipalities have not been following them.
If you’re in the U.S. you can check your own water supply by visiting the Tap Water Database, which allows anyone in the U.S. to enter their zip code or local utility’s name and find out what’s lurking in their local water supply.
Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post. Follow us at Twitter and Steemit. This article is Creative Commons and can be republished in full with attribution.
With great respect
thorfourwinds/rabunopsec
Peace Love Light
Hec'el oinipikte (That we may live)
Mni Wiconi, (Water Is Life)
Pidamiyapi (Thank You in Lakota)
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