Or, as a friend who was a street actor at a certain renaissance faire used to say (in a semi-cheesy Basque accent)...

May the peece of the shire be upon them!

hahahahaha.

Hydraulic Empire. Ask Rome...

Of course, you could return said water to them... starting with what has already been drank.

Wow, metering your well. We have water wars going on up here too. The tribe says all the water in the watershed (including more than has ever come down any of it since the failing of the ice dam on Lake Missoula 20,000 years ago http://hugefloods.com/LakeMissoula.html) belongs to them, even when the headwaters are in Canada.

Control the water control the world.

Water wars...

They're working on a scheme now to meter well water - using the drought as the reason - because those evil rural land owners (who have the risk and reward of their own water source - not the socialistic municipal teat) are taking more than their "Fair share" from the poor city dwellers.