| I think you bring up a good point, if you are planning to create any kind of system greater than 4 acre feet of water, it is imperative to get the permits and do the planning as the consequences of flooding and pond / reservoir failure are very real. Also, one thing land owners don't usually check into is the wildlife risk created by changes to wetland or riparian areas. South-Western Oregon has several species of concern like the Northwestern Pond Turtle - https://www.oregonconservationstrategy.org/strategy-species/... Currently, Josephine and Jackson county are very amenable to creation of fire suppression reservoirs because of wild fire risk. There are a bunch of requirements for those types fo reservoir, but they can greatly accelerate the permitting process. All that said, if you are creating ponds < 4 acre feet of water, a lot of people just build it and get a permit post construction (if they get reported or care) as the process does take so long, and in Oregon the permitting after the fact process is/was very lenient. As another commenter said, if you are cutting swales, creating small reservoirs to feed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur style structures (i.e. less than .1 acre feet of water), most permitting bodies rarely ever know or care. In most cases, you are far more likely to get code / enforcement attention if you run afoul of your neighbors and they report you. |