Colorado Legalizes Rain Water Harvesting. Kind Of.

Colorado Legalizes Rain Water Harvesting. Kind Of.

Back in June of last year, we dropped the story that harvesting rain water in Colorado was actually an illegal activity. We commented on just how dumb this law was — and over 100 comments later, many of you agreed. Almost a year later, the Colorado legislature has revised the draconian law to give some homeowners rights the water that falls from their roofs. But not everyone will be happy. From the article,

If you live in the city, don’t install a barrel under your gutter spout just yet. The legislation lets residents on wells collect rain and establishes 10 pilot projects for new developments. Residents on municipal water still can’t legally collect rain, and water suppliers are leery of legislation that would let them. “All the water was spoken for here in the Arkansas Basin 100 years ago or more,” said Kevin Lusk, water supply engineer for Colorado Springs Utilities. “If the water falls as rain, that’s water that was going to get to the stream system, and somebody already has dibs on it, and if somebody intercepts that, it’s the same as stealing.”

The same as stealing? Give me a break. If a homeowner owns property, they should have rights to use the water that falls on that parcel. “If you can just use what’s coming out of the sky, it saves energy costs, it saves transportation costs, and ultimately, at the end of the day, it should save us on using forms of water that have to be treated,” said CO State Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan. I agree with her 100%.

Even with the new laws, you’ll still need to fill out a stupid application if you’d like to legally collect rainwater on your property.