Response to No one should ‘own’ water rights 

Marcia Armstrong, Siskiyou County Supervisor

February 1, 2008 

Our system of government is based on the recognition of the ownership of private property. Property is considered an extension of the fruit of one's labors. It recognizes that as there is a God-given right to the ownership of one's own body, there is ownership in the physical things in which one mixes his own labor. That system existed in Oregon and California at statehood. It is based on the traditional Western principles of discovery, appropriation and continued beneficial use. Most of the water use rights in the Scott and the Shasta Valleys date back to the mid-1850s. In addition, in California , a riparian water use right runs with the land. When California declared that all water surplus to that already appropriated belonged to the people, it reaffirmed the private property rights already established.  

At this point, to disenfranchise private owners of their property right in the use of water and redistribute that property would be the same as the recent communistic movements of South American dictators to nationalize all natural resources. Without property, a man is a slave. I for one, do not wish to join South America in its rush toward the collective.