It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado

[BlueJessamine]

Source: New York Times

DURANGO, Colo. — For the first time since territorial days, rain will be free for the catching here, as more and more thirsty states part ways with one of the most entrenched codes of the West.

Precipitation, every last drop or flake, was assigned ownership from the moment it fell in many Western states, making scofflaws of people who scooped rainfall from their own gutters. In some instances, the rights to that water were assigned a century or more ago.

Now two new laws in Colorado will allow many people to collect rainwater legally. The laws are the latest crack in the rainwater edifice, as other states, driven by population growth, drought, or declining groundwater in their aquifers, have already opened the skies or begun actively encouraging people to collect.

“I was so willing to go to jail for catching water on my roof and watering my garden,” said Tom Bartels, a video producer here in southwestern Colorado, who has been illegally watering his vegetables and fruit trees from tanks attached to his gutters. “But now I’m not a criminal.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html?_r=1&hp

---

snip

Just 75 miles west of here, in Utah, collecting rainwater from the roof is still illegal unless the roof owner also owns water rights on the ground; the same rigid rules, with a few local exceptions, also apply in Washington State. Meanwhile, 20 miles south of here, in New Mexico, rainwater catchment, as the collecting is called, is mandatory for new dwellings in some places like Santa Fe.

[pleah]

1. K&R That is good news.

[Dover]

2. Excellent news! Might consider posting this in the Environ/Energy forum as well...n/t

[bertman]

3. We'd ALL better start catching it and using it. Our groundwater is being used up and

polluted by everything from household chemicals to industrial waste that is pumped into aquifers.

But wait, GE and KBR will save us by building giant water purification plants and charging us for what we used to get free. Gawd bless Amerka.

[Wednesdays]

27. Nah, the stores will just stock more bottles of Ozarka.

Problem solved.

[CanonRay]

4. Been doing it here in Colorado for 7 years!

I didn't know it was illegal. Whoopsie! :shrug:

[azygous]

6. Me too.

Lived in Colorado fifteen years and have been defying (knowingly) the law with my four rain barrels. Some laws require breaking. Like what I can grow in my garden to be watered by all that illegal rain.

[progressoid]

5. Water....it's the 21st century's oil.

[Robb]

7. Feh. Still need a permit and existing well.

A start, but a weak one.

[MicaelS]

8. K&R thanks for the news

About time these asinine laws were overturned.

[BlueJessamine]

14. You're welcome!

:fistbump:

[northernlights]

9. the downside, here in Maine

we're sitting on one of the largest pure water aquifers around. Unfortunately, Poland Springs -- now owned by Nestle Co. -- thinks they have a right to as much of it as they want.

They started by pretending to be doing us a favor by offering a few minimum wage jobs in a poverty-stricken state, while the profits go to Switzerland. :eyes: Maine wised up and said no deal.

Now they've been going from small village to small village suing. They claim that nobody "owns" the water because it constantly moves. :eyes:

My attitude is, fine, Maine owns the *filtering system* that purifies the aquifer...so they should be forced to pay heavy, heavy usage fees for the use of our filter. Enough to make the stfu and GO AWAY.

Water: the oil of the 21st century. It's not by chance that W. had Princess Jenna find him that 10,000 acre parcel in Paraguay...that sits on possibly the largest pure water aquifer in the world.

[louis-t]

21. Nestle did the same here in MI.

Can't recall if they are still pumping water here.

[tabbycat31]

26. read the book Bottlemania

[lilymidnite]

10. Rain barrels legal in NM

I returned from Santa Fe a couple of weeks ago, where rain barrels are a common sight. I was then very surprised to discover that they are illegal here in Utah. I promptly wrote to my state senator, who supports overturning this antiquated law. I'll be sending this link to her.

I also promptly printed out instructions from here (http://www.cityofbremerton.com/content/sw_makeyourownrainbarrel.html) on how to make my own rain barrel.
Unless my neighbors turn me in, one of these is getting installed in my (fenced) back yard.

[underpants]

11. Water rights in the West, isn't that what "China Town" was about?

:shrug:

[closeupready]

16. Yes, that's correct.

n/t

[dem mba]

23. forget it Jake, this is Durango.

:P

[LiberalFighter]

12. What is the history on this law? Who were these people that owned the water rights?

[phusion]

13. For private well owners only?

That apparently means those of us in the city can't catch rainwater...

[jody]

15. Was it illegal to collect urine under CO's law? n/t

[kestrel91316]

17. The air that we breathe and the sun that shines on our faces and the rain

that falls on our heads belongs to US. The PEOPLE. Laws like this are a remnant of the robber baron days, meant to enrich the wealthy few at the expense of the many poor.

Next stop: Utah. And then Washington.

[Buddyblazon]

18. This is wonderful...

I've been discussing this with my friends the past few weeks. Didn't even know it was about to become legal. Actually had the talk yesterday.

HOORAY!!!!!!!

[imdjh]

19. That's just freaky

You tell a traditional easterner (southerner) that he doesn't own his property "Hell deep and sky high" and he's likely to get his shotgun.

[RedCloud]

20. Viva rainwater catchment systems. Death to the water moguls.

Man it falls from the sky. It ought to be yours for the catching.

[xxqqqzme]

22. I wish we would have

enough rain to catch. I cannot remember a dryer year.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

24. It only matters if it was enforced.

Glad they changed a dumb law, but if it was never enforced, then does a tree fall in the woods?

[CrispyQ]

25. FLOW - For Love Of Water

http://www.flowthefilm.com/


Rent this movie. Watch it with your children. Encourage everyone you know to watch it.