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Shared well issues

Surveyboy

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2020
Member Number
2013
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135
Who's the legal minds here now?

So, I have a shared well that I use with 3 neighbors. There's a long history with it and it stems in part from we live in the mountains, well is 600' deep and its california.... and one person decided they wanted to grow weed, so they used 4 times the amount of water as everyone else.

I want to know that if its legally possible to include some sort of expected usage limit in the agreement. It's majority vote, and 3 of 4 are ok with some sort of limits.

anyone point me to someone they know that's a knowledgeable real estate lawyer?

sb
 
Fucking people. I share a well and there's 5 people living in their house and only two here, but it could easily be the other way around, we have two horses, but they don't take showers every day. We both have pools and put money into a seperate account to cover the electricity and split any repair bills.

Is there a well agreement? Who is the well nazi?
 
I think you would be looking for a underground/mineral rights type of lawyer?? Maybe even a lawyer that works for a local utility that would know the ins and outs of water sakes and usage. I personally would think a meter for each connection and split costs according to usage.
 
Good luck changing that agreement after the fact.


The better option would be wait until the weed is ready to harvest, steal weed, sell, weed, profit :grinpimp:
 
TreeClimber said:
Is it legal to grow in your jurisdiction? IF so, for personal use only, or, for resale?
Is he/she renters or homeowners?
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I guess i'm the new well nazi, I just got nominated as well manager lol

Legal to grow??? with permits. we are zoned mixes residential and ag.

the people who are using the most (or potential) started to grow in the beginning and got resistance from the other 3 before i moved here. last year, they rented it out and the renters started to grow and spiked the water usage. Since no one is 'officially' growing anything, its hard to go the ag only way (which is already included as not allowed, due to this being a domestic only well) and its more than personal use, as in about 100's plants were seen at least.

just wondering if there is someway to put something together that would at least make a new buyer realize we aren't going to accept them likely destroying our well so they can make money.
 
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I'm curious how much $$$ you're talking about? I suppose at 600' the electricity is going to be more than the 8' my pump is lifting but have you tried estimating about how much they are costing you and then approaching them about it? Weed people may be more than happy to fork over an extra $20 a month to make their neighbors happy. Cash of course.
GPM estimate?
You're probably talking about 6kWh per 1000 gallons or so.
 
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have everyone install a tank and schedule "maintenance" in a very critical portion of the grow season
 
Are y'all short on water? What is the problem, or are you just pissy ?

Would you be pissed if he had a flower garden?

What does the crop have to do with it?

What does the agreement say?
 
larboc said:
I'm curious how much $$$ you're talking about? I suppose at 600' the electricity is going to be more than the 8' my pump is lifting but have you tried estimating about how much they are costing you and then approaching them about it? Weed people may be more than happy to fork over an extra $20 a month to make their neighbors happy. Cash of course.
GPM estimate?
Click to expand...

The cost of the usage isn't an issue, the electric is peanuts.... that's the issue. you can use a ton and still only spend $20 for the elect. I don't even care much about having to replace a pump. But, if they kill the well and dry it up, we're kinda fucked. But, I know they don't care as they will just truck water in to finish the season then move on. The killing of the well is what i'm hoping to prevent.

the cost to drill a new well is about $100k and as always, no guarantee of finding water.
 
grumpy356 said:
Are y'all short on water? What is the problem, or are you just pissy ?

Would you be pissed if he had a flower garden?

What does the crop have to do with it?

What does the agreement say?
Click to expand...

its California. there's always a drought lol

average use of the 3 of us is generally less than 6000 gallons a month. We all know we live in the mountains and water is not unlimited.

the crop uses a tremendous amount of water and all around ca its been drying up creeks and such because of people using the water to grow weed.

agreement doesn't say anything about useage, It was written back in the 90's and they trusted each other. the original 3 on the well were responsible and reasonable people. a 4th got added and they aren't from the area and have a mentality of being better than everyone else because they are from Marin county.
 
Surveyboy said:
The cost of the usage isn't an issue, the electric is peanuts.... that's the issue. you can use a ton and still only spend $20 for the elect. I don't even care much about having to replace a pump. But, if they kill the well and dry it up, we're kinda fucked. But, I know they don't care as they will just truck water in to finish the season then move on. The killing of the well is what i'm hoping to prevent.

the cost to drill a new well is about $100k and as always, no guarantee of finding water.
Click to expand...

Ahh. Makes sense. I had this happen on a rental where the renters left the water on for a day straight, pump burned up running dry and the water was cloudy and wouldn't pass a test. Had to put a ton of money into it to fix it.

What was the well rated for when it was put in? Are you actually at or getting close to that number? Well records should be easily available, even online usually.

I like the idea of "poisoning the water hole", what is toxic to plants but not humans? Salt? Vinegar? Bleach?
 
Surveyboy said:
its California. there's always a drought lol

average use of the 3 of us is generally less than 6000 gallons a month. We all know we live in the mountains and water is not unlimited.

the crop uses a tremendous amount of water and all around ca its been drying up creeks and such because of people using the water to grow weed.

agreement doesn't say anything about useage, It was written back in the 90's and they trusted each other. the original 3 on the well were responsible and reasonable people. a 4th got added and they aren't from the area and have a mentality of being better than everyone else because they are from Marin county.
Click to expand...

Can you melt some of the snow from the ski slopes or desalinate some of the surfing water?
 
Surveyboy said:
its California. there's always a drought lol

average use of the 3 of us is generally less than 6000 gallons a month. We all know we live in the mountains and water is not unlimited.

the crop uses a tremendous amount of water and all around ca its been drying up creeks and such because of people using the water to grow weed.

agreement doesn't say anything about useage, It was written back in the 90's and they trusted each other. the original 3 on the well were responsible and reasonable people. a 4th got added and they aren't from the area and have a mentality of being better than everyone else because they are from Marin county.
Click to expand...

You realize if he put a well on his own property, from a water standpoint there’d be no difference. It’s not like the water stops at some given spot. So even if he has his own well it’s still affects you exactly the same with except may be a little bit pump maintenance.

And I grew up in the 80’s, if you did have an agreement you were a moron. This isn’t anything new.
 
Surveyboy said:
. . . average use of the 3 of us is generally less than 6000 gallons a month. . . .
Click to expand...
Damn. I thought 6000 sounded like a huge amount until Google told me the average family of 4 uses 12,000 gallons/month. :eek:

Like you said, the real issue is running the well dry. If the governance is majority rule then vote that fawker out of business.
 
Surveyboy said:
its California. there's always a drought lol

average use of the 3 of us is generally less than 6000 gallons a month. We all know we live in the mountains and water is not unlimited.

the crop uses a tremendous amount of water and all around ca its been drying up creeks and such because of people using the water to grow weed.

agreement doesn't say anything about useage, It was written back in the 90's and they trusted each other. the original 3 on the well were responsible and reasonable people. a 4th got added and they aren't from the area and have a mentality of being better than everyone else because they are from Marin county.
Click to expand...

The tribe has spoken, vote 'em off the island errr mountain.

Really though someone, probably a lawyer needs to read the well agreement, see what it says and if needed add a "No excessive water usage" clause, require native drought resistant plantings, limit watering etc.
 
Lol my use is about 1500 gallons a month lol
and yeah, I'm looking for a lawyer to review it, but was wondering if anyone had dealt with it in the past.

It's shared wells seem that they pretty common up here in the past, before weed took over.
 
grumpy356 said:
You realize if he put a well on his own property, from a water standpoint there’d be no difference. It’s not like the water stops at some given spot. So even if he has his own well it’s still affects you exactly the same with except may be a little bit pump maintenance.

And I grew up in the 80’s, if you did have an agreement you were a moron. This isn’t anything new.
Click to expand...

I agree. But most weed growers aren't going to pay to dig the well. They will just destroy existing
 
I'm in CO, not CA, so things may be different. However, here we have the Division of Water Resources. They issue well permits. Your well likely does or should have a permit. That permit (here) spells out the number of residences which may be served, and whether or not any non domestic uses (outdoor irrigation) are allowed. If that's allowed, it's typically spelled out in acre feet and/or irrigable area in square footage. If the grow is for commercial purposes, that usage is not covered under a residential permit and would require a commercial well permit. YMMV.
 
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