Colorado makes it legal for homeowners to harvest rainwater

Glad I'm an enslaved social democratic Canadian, and not a "Free" American! Do you guys have to pay to spit in the woods too?

Lawns are functional. Besides preventing erosion, like all vegetation, grass makes oxygen. Field grass lawns are part an important part of our area's eco system, clover feeds bees, for example. Laws to prevent water polution make sense but owning a water resource, whether it's a river, a lake or an ocean shouldn't be possible. To claim ownership of the rain is as silly as claiming ownership of the air. I know, that's probably coming, too. A breathing tax.

Just plain nuts that the person who's property the rain falls on first doesn't get an allotment of water they are permitted cache each year, before allowing it to flow down stream to other legitimate users. Time for everyone to agree the regulations where overkill to remedy a problem years ago. The descendants of the original thieves have already paid for those sins long enough. Everyone has to be required to use water wisely.

I just put up my first rain barrel: I'm amazed at how much less house-water I use for the garden now. I can't imagine this kind of project being illegal. Thanks for the article!

seriously get over yourselves. you all are a bunch of tools. why don't you read the npr article instead of just the excerpts published here on mnn? by the way, i have to wonder if mnn really has the rights to publish excerpts from another journal (npr). i guess they don't really care since they are advocating stealing rainwater in the first place.

This is a stupid law. However it is not as simple as totally throwing it out. Water is going to get very valuable soon. A law saying if it falls on your land creates a dangerous situation. It will lead to corporate entities buying land solely to stockpile water that should be going into the ground and rivers. I don't like the idea of not being allowed to collect water but I also don't like the growing plans for massive water farms that mess with water tables and dry out rivers.

coming from the city in NY, I can't fully understand the water wars but I must say it's a tad bit ridiculous to claim water, something from nature that falls from the sky, even before it hits the ground. Will these people soon fine planes that fly through the harvesting clouds that provide the water? The earth is spiraling down, cant we all just cooperate? and i agree with the person above who says they should accept responsibility for the damages done to land by the rivers

And some folks wonder where science fiction writers and movie makers get their material!

Governments are the source of all problems. They are greedy, destructive, selfish, thoughtless, uncaring, megalomaniacal bleeps. Sometimes I think we would be better off without government. They all suck the juice of anything they can get whilst dropping their turds on our heads. Apart from the Aquaducts and feral education system, they're just fine. What aquaducts? do I hear you say. Yeah, we pay for desalination plants when all we have to do is stop wasting water on something as necessary.... More

i live on the big island of hawaii, and i'd estimate that about 50-75% of the households on this island rely almost completely on catchment systetms for their water. the idea that collecting rain water could possibly be illegal or that the runoff is owned by the owners of the stream water is ludicrous! where were these laws when the desert cities in the southwest were diverting the colorado river to such an extent that it stopped flowing to the sea completely? when will humans learn?

What a nonsensical law! It's crazy to imagine that someone else would have ownership of the rain & rainwater! Perhaps people who lose their homes & property in floods can seek compensation from those who claim to own the rights to the water. It's *their* water doing the damage, yes?

The fight for water has begun.

Thank you for reporting (about) this.