(This post also appears on the Agenda 21 page. GARDENING page has been updated for California's water rights.) This is one of those moments when I regret no longer having a national following.
January 28th
Occasionally, someone will ask me to provide an example of Agenda 21 in action. It is with great sadness that I provide a real world, concrete example from a city which ought to be the greatest defender of freedom. I'm talking about YOU, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH!!
Salt Lake City, Utah, if you recall, is a card carrying member of ICLEI (http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=11454). ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) is the radical front group which pushes governments big and small, into placing laws on the books. These laws have only one purpose: to take away the rights of citizenry and place all aspects of YOUR life under the control of government.
People mistakenly think that ICLEI swoops in, slaps down a million laws with a heavy hammer tagged Agenda 21. No, sheeple, ICLEI sneaks in on padded footsteps, slaps down a million tiny laws under the cover of "the greater collective good," taking away each freedom by degrees, until like the frog, you are boiled alive.
What better place to do this than Salt Lake City? A city, which by far, has a population who believe in honoring, obeying, and sustaining the law? Too many of its citizenry, when faced with an Agenda 21 law, will shrug their shoulders and think, "well, it's the law, I better comply, or I won't be worthy." No people. What you need to do is wake up, recognize evil for what it is, throw out the evildoers in the next election, go through your city's laws with a fine tooth comb, and get rid of them.
Your Salt Lake City council members are in one of two categories: they are either sheeple who go along because they don't know better, or they are actively endeavoring to take your God-given rights away. If there's a council member who is fighting the good fight, not only would I like to know who it is, but those of you living in SLC should be putting your collective voting weight supporting him or her.
So what's this huge law which is so clearly labeled Agenda 21 that even the blind can see it? Ready for it? Here we go: collecting rainwater. Yep, that's it. I know, you were expecting some big thing, like eminent domain of a 90 year old granny's house. Nope. Small and insidious, by degrees. That's how ICLEI and Agenda 21 work.
No matter how great the "perpetrator" (in this case, the Mark Miller Toyota dealership) or small (you, the homeowner), if you collect rainwater in Salt Lake City, YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW, and YOU WILL be prosecuted. Seriously. They're not playing around. "You," (and I'm quoting here) "are breaking the law if you do not have a water right to collect rainwater."
Seriously? Last time I checked the laws of nature, or the Bible (or you Mormons, the Book of Mormon), RAIN comes from God, and falls on the just and unjust, meaning everyone. I get the idea of water rights. I get that you shouldn't be able to build a dam on the Jordan River (I'm talking about the one in Salt Lake, not the one in Israel). WE'RE TALKING COLLECTING RAINWATER that fell on your house or building.
Their logic? Well if EVERYONE did it, think of how that would impact the CITY'S water supply? We (the city government) wouldn't have enough for our purposes. And we wouldn't be able to charge you for it either.
Here's the YouTube video about the person Salt Lake City is prosecuting for collecting rainwater: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jjxg8f3Gq0. For those of you who are still unconvinced, please note that the city official doesn't state that he WON'T prosecute the "small fry" homeowner, only that he doesn't have the time. Wow. There's a big relief. I'm protected only by the workload of some bureaucrat.
This video was uploaded in 2008. Since then, vigilant Utahns have worked to get the law modified. As of May 11, 2010, it is "legal" to harvest rainwater in Utah. Unwilling to release its icy tentacles entirely, it may be legal but you still have to REGISTER to legally collect it. Yeah, I'm not kidding. This from from the www.waterrights.utah.gov website:
Rainwater harvesting is now legal in the state of Utah, starting May 11 2010. Senate Bill 32 was approved in the 2010 session that provides for the collection and use of precipitation without obtaining a water right after registering on the Division of Water Rights web page (waterrights.utah.gov). There is no charge for registration.Storage is limited to one underground 2500 gallon container or two above ground 100 gallon containers. Collection and use are limited to the same parcel of land owned or leased by the rainwater collector.
To read SB 32 in its entirety click here.
To register to harvest rainwater click here.
Realize what that law is saying. If I have a year's supply of dehydrated food, which is going to take 550 gallons water to re-hydrate, if I buy 10 of those blue 55 gallon water barrels and use rainwater to fill them, I AM BREAKING THE LAW.
A far wiser person than I once said: "No man can serve two masters: either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." (Matthew 6:24, KJV).
So Salt Lake City: you can either be obedient to God (having a year's supply, be self reliant etc.) or you can be obedient to the law (only keep 3 blue barrels), or you can recognize that even though it has been dialed back, the LAW is still corrupt and get it changed.
THE REST OF US NEED TO LOOK IN OUR OWN BACKYARD! Is it illegal or quasi legal for you too?
