A Jackson County man with a 10-year history of illegally diverting water with homemade dams was sentenced this week to 30 days in jail and fined $1,500.
Gary A. Harrington was convicted earlier this month of nine counts of unauthorized water use. Under Oregon law, all water is publicly owned and a permit is required to divert or store it for personal use.
State Water Resources Department officials said Harrington has three dams across channels that cross his property outside of Medford and feed into Big Butte Creek. The creek is a tributary of the Rogue River.
Two of the dams stand about 10 feet high and the third is about 20 feet tall. Harrington stocked the reservoirs that formed behind the dams with trout and bluegill, built boat docks and used the ponds for fishing.
State officials estimated 40 acre-feet of water collected behind the dams, enough to fill nearly 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Officials are uncertain whether Harrington built the dams himself, ordered their construction, or if they were on the property when he bought it. At any rate, it is illegal to divert and store waters of the state without a permit.
Tom Paul, deputy director of the Water Resources Department, said Harrington would not have been granted a permit even if he'd applied for one, because the city of Medford has an existing water right to the Big Butte flow.
Harrington twice was ordered to drain the reservoirs and did so in 2002 and 2008, but refilled them each time, according to a Water Resources Department news release. At Harrington's sentencing this month, a judge ordered the headgates kept open with chains and locks, and ordered the dams to be breached after the water drains.
In addition to the fine and jail time, Harrington was placed on probation for three years. He is scheduled to begin his jail term in August, and water officials are watching to make sure Harrington complies with the terms of his sentencing, Paul said.
Harrington was cited and fined in 2002, and in 2008 pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized water use. The day after his probation expired, however, he closed the headgates and refilled the reservoirs, Paul said.
Oregonians may collect water that gathers on impervious surfaces such as a parking lot, or divert roof runoff to rain barrels, but otherwise need a permit. Paul said Harrington appears to have political beliefs that are in opposition to state law. Harrington represented himself at his Jackson County Circuit Court trial this month.
"I don't think he necessarily believed what we were telling him," Paul said.
--Eric Mortenson
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