Pay To Pump Water From Your Well?

[Xargos]

But more important, i live on top of a mountain, that water comes from god.

But some politicians think they're God so...

[Winks]

i have a well but i also have a septic system, should i get paid for recharging the aquifer? But more important, i live on top of a mountain, that water comes from god.

give it time ......ur goverment will find a way for u to pay

[Ripsnort]

A few months ago the State of Texas forced my county to form a water control district to save us from the evil oil companies using excessive water to fracture the Barnett Shale. We either form one, or they will form one for us. A district was formed but we were assured it would not affect private citizens, only save us from the evil oil companies.

Today I'm reading the local paper and notice a blurb in uberfine print in the public notices. The newly formed WCD will be setting rules and fees for water use, including meters on water wells and fees starting 30 cents per 1000 gallons used from all wells. They will also be setting fines and penalties for non-compliance.

I will soon be paying for water I pump from my own well for my own private use. This is insane!

Now before you go screaming about the evil liberals taxing us out of existence, this system was put in place by our conservative republican controlled government. Thank you Big Brother. How long before you charge me to breathe air?

Shouldn't be a problem paying $.30 for every 1000 g. once the oil companies pay you for the mineral rights...right?

[Getback]

I did a quick google on this and found the WDC's but couldn't find anything specific to a wells. Not that I don't believe you. If it is true it's an outrage. I sure hope you folks stop this in Texas.

[Jackal1]

i have a well but i also have a septic system, should i get paid for recharging the aquifer? But more important, i live on top of a mountain, that water comes from god.

You better hope that God has a good septic system also. 

[Baitman]

One of the companies I own drills water wells. We have been fighting this sort of legislation in my area since the 1980's. As soon as the government knows that you have a well and realizes that you are using a resource and not paying for it YOU WILL BE TAXED.  I know some people that have drilled wells that do not want any paper work just for this simple reason.

[JoeA]

How about a river. Should folks upstream be able to dam and divert most of the water flow without regard to the rights of those folks downstream?

Water rights are about more than the rights of the property owner who is adjacent to water. Its a legitimate area for the state to be the arbiter of.

In vast areas in the US West, having water on/in/under your land means nothing in regards to ownership and the right to use it. 

"The first person to use a quantity of water from a water source for a beneficial use has the right to continue to use that quantity of water for that purpose. Subsequent users from the same source can use the remaining water for their own beneficial purposes provided that they do not impinge on the rights of previous users. "
http://water.wikia.com/wiki/Prior_appropriation_water_rights

Most the water here in NW Wyoming is owned by the farmers in Idaho who started to use it for farming potatoes long ago.  They can and have drained entire WY reservoirs/lakes in dry years.   Makes the WY boaters unhappy!

[culero]

Culero, it was proposed to be a restriction on commercial use. As soon as they got it in place, suddenly it is for commercial AND personal use.

You know, the old bait and switch.

It's just another way to milk more money out of you. Nobody owns anything in Texas anymore. You are just the taxpayer of record until you can't afford to pay. Then they take it away and sell it to the next fool.

Houston, Travis, Bowie and Crockett are doing synchronized spinning in their graves.

I see your point about how it was implemented, I don't like bait-and-switch any better than you do. My point was that the state does have a legitimate interest in underground water, and those folks who live directly above it don't really have more rights to it than those who don't when its an aquifer we're talking about. Its different than oil. An aquifer is like a river, just underground.

[lasersailor184]

Socialists need to be fought at every corner. 


And before anyone says anything, there are socialists in the Republican Party.  Anyone who thinks they have the right to tell another person how to live is a socialist.

[Baitman]

An aquifer is like a river, just underground.

An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand)

Thinking an aquifer is water in an underground river may lead to the thinking that it is only (XXX feet) wide when the aquifer can be hundreds of miles wide. The water in most aquifers travels very slow because it relies on the porosity and angle of plane of the material it is moving though. In some mountain aquifers the water can move quite quickly though gravels or large vuggy porosity (limestone) but in the prairies the water will be slower because of the angle of plane. Most aquifers are based (named) on the rock types that they occur in and may occur over many hundres of miles.

One of the most prolific flowing aquifers in the world is the Edwards Aquifer covering many counties in Texas.
A very interesting web site http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/ about the aquifer.

[Fishu]

A law will be past that we must all wear masks for our own protection because of pollution.  That the effects of pollution are causing a strain on our hospitals.  Then they'll put a meter on the masks and tax us on how much air we breath.

Actually, you're a bit wrong about one thing. They won't be taxing you for breathing the air in but for breathing out. Do not forget that carbon dioxide is a very dangerous greenhouse gas.

[SD67]

Hey, they can charge Usage Tax on the Oxygen and Emissions Tax on the CO2. Win win

[culero]

~blahblahbasicgeologyconceptsblahblah~

NS, Sherlock?

hint: I meant in a legal sense.

[AKIron]

Can I get a tax rebate for watering my co2 absorbing grass and plants?

[Holden McGroin]

William Mulholland, the civil engineer responsible for the Owens Valley - LA aquaduct, traced the flow of subterranian water from the Owens valley to the LA basin.  He dropped a radioactive isotope tracer in to Owens lake and the activity shoed in the ground water of Los Angeles.

For the last 75 years, anybody who has a well in the LA basin owes the LA Dept of Water and Power a fee based on the production of that well,as Mulholand showed that the water was from the Owens Valley, and those watr rights were owned by the LADWP.