[alanhenry]

After my initial outrage at the title, I found this comment to the actual article perhaps more telling than the article itself:

"Geographically, this is southern Oregon, near Medford; not the North Cascades. That part of the state simply dosen't recieve the amount of rain annually that Oregon is "known for". Eight acre feet of snow melt and rain waterannualy to fill those ponds, that's impossable. He's not filling from his well or tapping localized springs on his property, this guy divertied water flowing thought his property which feeds a tributary creek that supplies the city of Medford with it's potable water. Geeze can the truth be told once and a while? He admidted to doing just that some years ago. He's free to "store" all the rain water he pleases; which will likely evoporate by mid June."

Aside from the defensive tone, it looks like it's not that he's just innocently collecting water falling from the sky here, he's actually diverted natural resources that happen to flow through his property to suit his own needs because he wants ponds. That's a really important point that was left out of the article (glossed over, at best.)