It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado

[XemaSab]

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.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yay!!

[aquart]

2. I truly don't understand how rainwater catching was illegal.

Is it something about being from the east?

[msongs]

4. try this explanation -

water in rivers was divided up. preventing water from going in rivers was "taking" water away from those who got river water. therefore, preventing water from going in rivers was made illegal. You could not create your own dams and lakes or otherwise prevent water from going in rivers. That included catching water from your rooftop, or even standing out in the rain, looking up with your mouth open.

Msongs

[XemaSab]

5. It has to do with water rights

If the Durango water district is entitled to all the water from Durango Creek (for example), if you live in the Durango Creek watershed and you catch your own rain, you're "stealing" from the rightful owners of the water.

[DJ13]

3. Are golden showers still illegal?

[NightWatcher]

6. I just put in a 55 gal rain catch and am expanding it to a 220 gal system

using it for watering the plants here in North Florida