I'd like some thoughts, and I'm not in any way trying to ruffle feathers. There is a creek runs through my folk's place. About 20 years ago, a guy bought a place upstream from my folks. He immediately built a couple of BIG ponds on the property and planted a mess of evergreen trees. Long story short, he pumped water from the creek to not only fill those ponds but to water all those trees. When the rain quit one year, he pumped so much water that not even a trickle made it on downstream to our place, and forced my mom to redo a bunch of fencing that would enable the renters cattle to come water at the well up by the buildings. I have walked that creek from our place upstream to the source, about 4 miles as the crow flies, and more like 7 or 8 as the creek flows. At the driest, there was plenty of water from the source all the way to tree boy's place, and just downstream from where his pipe is in the creek, it dried up. He has a pump house right by the creek, and has had both a suck hose or a pipe right in the water.
Mom talked to about everybody you can think of about this, the NRD people, SCS, irrigation district, you name it, and they all pretty much brushed her off. One genius told her tree boy would have to be caught red handed before anything could be done. The suction hose in the creek and the pump house right there, along with lines running to his ponds and trees wasn't enough proof for them that he was pumping water from the creek. Shortly after all this mom's health began to deteriorate and she lost the strength to fight it. My brother never did a damn thing about it while he was alive & PR of her estate....and, for now, it's my problem.
The power plant where I work is maybe 50 yards from tree boy's driveway, and when I do my overnights, there is no problem hearing him start the motor up & begin pumping, usually about a half hour before dark, and he'll still be pumping when I go home at 6am.
Any suggestions on who I might contact about this? What he's doing can't be legal, can it? Tree boy has always been a prick who thinks he's totally above the law, and now I have a guy wanting to rent the pasture and with some work we're doing at the place, it wouldn't be very convenient for them to come water by the house when they should be able to water from the creek.
Thoughts?
Mom talked to about everybody you can think of about this, the NRD people, SCS, irrigation district, you name it, and they all pretty much brushed her off. One genius told her tree boy would have to be caught red handed before anything could be done. The suction hose in the creek and the pump house right there, along with lines running to his ponds and trees wasn't enough proof for them that he was pumping water from the creek. Shortly after all this mom's health began to deteriorate and she lost the strength to fight it. My brother never did a damn thing about it while he was alive & PR of her estate....and, for now, it's my problem.
The power plant where I work is maybe 50 yards from tree boy's driveway, and when I do my overnights, there is no problem hearing him start the motor up & begin pumping, usually about a half hour before dark, and he'll still be pumping when I go home at 6am.
Any suggestions on who I might contact about this? What he's doing can't be legal, can it? Tree boy has always been a prick who thinks he's totally above the law, and now I have a guy wanting to rent the pasture and with some work we're doing at the place, it wouldn't be very convenient for them to come water by the house when they should be able to water from the creek.
Thoughts?