Robinson, you bring up a great point. I lived in Savannah, GA for a while and a friend of mine was a Colonel Full Bird at the Savannah USACE office. Unfortunately, that was 5 years ago and he has moved on. I remember the water issues on the coast, and I remember how the whole state was on water restrictions during my time there. Even though the USACE is a federal agency, I'm sure they are influenced by regional "sensitivites" such as water shortages. My job at a water trucking company (oilfield) I have had to research water rights in several areas. In North Dakota, there are very few restrictions for drawing water. Just a few miles away in Montana, we had to go through a lengthy process to get a water permit, and it is tightly controlled. In Colorado, the value of a piece of property can vary greatly on how many water rights it has (you can have a half a right, one right, two rights, etc.) In a "green" state like California, I bet it is nearly impossible. I live in Oklahoma, a farm and ranch state and highly erosionable, so ponds are easily built, sometimes even encouraged to prevent erosion. Which brings us back 5 or six pages into this thread, that to do a comprehensive article on pond building to include the 404 permits is a daunting task. State regulations and interpretations of Federal regs vary greatly and sometimes may boil down to what kind of day the engineer you are talking to has had. But I have greatly enjoyed this thread and plan to look further into it with my local USACE office and I will post my results, just as soon as I see the light at the end of the tunnel!
