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What the heck? Illegal to collect rainwater?

:crazy:

I don't do it myself as it is rather impractical in my location, but I know many here do:

Apparently it's illegal in Washington too?

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=4001252

Catching rain water is against the law
August 12th, 2008 @ 11:49pm
By John Hollenhorst

Who owns the rain? Not you, it turns out. You're actually breaking the law if you capture the rain falling on your roof and pour it on your flower bed! A prominent Utah car dealer found that out when he tried to do something good for the environment.

Rebecca Nelson captures rainwater in a barrel, and she pours it on her plants. "We can fill up a barrel in one rainstorm. And so it seems a waste to just let it fall into the gravel," she said.

Car dealer Mark Miller wanted to do pretty much the same thing on a bigger scale. He collects rainwater on the roof of his new building, stores it in a cistern and hopes to clean cars with it in a new, water-efficient car wash. But without a valid water right, state officials say he can't legally divert rainwater. "I was surprised. We thought it was our water," Miller said.

State officials say it's an old legal concept to protect people who do have water rights. Boyd Clayton, the deputy state engineer, said, "Obviously if you use the water upstream, it won't be there for the person to use it downstream."

"Utah's the second driest state in the nation. Our water laws ought to catch up with that," Miller says.

So what about the little guy, watering with rainwater at home? Will anybody do anything about that violation of the law? Clayton said, "If she really does that, then she ought to have a water right to do it." He added that they would likely make an issue out of it, though, because they have "bigger fish to fry."

After months of discussion, city and state officials worked out a tentative compromise with the bigger fish, Mark Miller Toyota. Jeff Niermeyer, the Salt Lake City director of public utilities, said, "He would basically be using a Salt Lake City water right and diverting it under our name."

State officials say the Mark Miller agreement could become a blueprint for other rainwater projects. Homeowner projects, although technically illegal, are likely to stay off the state radar screen.

E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
 
That's absurd! I collect rainwater... and creekwater all the time. But then again, I'm in New York. So who does own the water?
 
.....i just find out why is not raining in SoCal.....it's against the law!!!!:headwall:
 
as far as i know in Montana until the water actually enters the water table there is no water right against it........course Montana is pretty good about keeping idiotic laws off the books or at the very least realizes it has bigger issues and dont enforce the stupid stuff
 
wow so ive pretty much been breaking the law o_O xDDDD funny as hell. ill keep collecting rain water. idc. sooooo. meh
 
Boyd Clayton, the deputy state engineer, said, "Obviously if you use the water upstream, it won't be there for the person to use it downstream."


So then no one can use it. Cause there will always be someone "downstream" from you... That's what water does, constantly gets reused.
 
Wow, all the greenhouses here would be breaking the law as they all use cisterns. Don't know if MN has silly laws like that or not since we've got "10.000 lakes". Although you are not recommended to eat fish out of them more than once a week due to mercury poisoning thanks to 3M and Minnesotas wussy stance towards polluters.
 
That's western water law in a pretty pure form. Montana's law isn't as rational as Rattler thinks, it's just that the state hasn't had as many conflicts as the more populated or more water-stressed states. Yet. But it has sued Wyoming over how much water is arriving in the Yellowstone and it can count on eventually being sued by its downstream states. I've read MT has more water rights claims than actual water. That isn't unusual in the west, but it only becomes a problem when everyone tries to use all their water. Especially when they're consumptive uses.
 
I live in good ol' dry Utah, and I still collect rainwater, what pathetically little amounts of it we get. But yes it's illegal in some states. New Jersey is another.
 
  • #10
Bruce.....actually i asked my buddy who deals with Montana water law weither this is an issue here.....he is looking it up for me when he has a minute but he deals with the land owners claims more........will post the answer i get from him when ever i get it....

would like to see how all the water rights are broken up cause in all actuality about 1/4 the state is owned by the feds and the feds control the major dams......wonder how much of Montana's water rights actually belong to the feds? my have to ask my buddy that question aswell.....
 
  • #11
This came off the Utah Division of Water Rights homepage:

"Rainwater harvesting is now legal in the state of Utah, starting May 11 2010. Senate Bill 32 was approved in the 2010 session that provides for the collection and use of precipitation without obtaining a water right after registering on the Division of Water Rights web site.
There is no charge for registration.

Storage is limited to one underground 2500 gallon container or two above ground 100 gallon containers. Collection and use are limited to the same parcel of land owned or leased by the rainwater collector."

On the site there is a link to register and it takes seriously 2-5 minutes to fill out the info, then they redirect to where you can print out a certificate for your records. It looks pretty snazzy with all of my other documents.
 
  • #12
its illegal in new jersey. ahahahhaha this is just stupid.
 
  • #13
Are you sure it's illegal in NJ? Eastern water law is completely different from western and a ban against capturing precipitation wouldn't make sense in an eastern state. Unless it's a local public health ordinance aiming to reduce mosquito breeding or a private deed restriction trying to keep a development classy. As for Utah, I'll have to look up that bill when I have more time later. Colorado did the same in the last year or so, but only allowed it for people who use a well (I think). Most people would be shocked at how state water laws work (or don't).
 
  • #14
This topic sent me off to do some research for where I live. I'm in what's called a "critical wetlands zone" along the east coast in Maryland. here we are limited on the amount of impervious land structures such as homes, driveways, etc to help prevent stormwater runoff into the bay.
Rainwater collection is highly encouraged as part of that same effort, so anyone who needs rainwater come on over here, set up your barrels and then collect your water from me for a modest fee. I can be the :water:first rainwater farmer in my town.
 
  • #15
It is absolutely true that you cannot collect rain water in some states. Especially the more arid regions. Even if it falls on property that you own.

Reference:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/collect...vernment-claims-ownership-over-our-water.html

This has a link to a youtube vid where an owner of a Toyota dealership got into trouble with the law for trying to collect rain water to wash cars. He thought he was being green by doing so but ended up in trouble with the law. A deal was struck in the end however.
 
  • #16
The fact that someone has a deed to a piece of land doesn't mean they have any claim to the water falling on it. In western states, surface water rights were separated from land rights a long time ago. In places where people have rights to more water than actually exists, people gardening with water from the roof are taking water that "belongs" to someone else. It's similar to the mineral rights - the owner of a piece of land doesn't necessarily own the minerals beneath it. There have even been battles over atmospheric moisture, since someone doing cloud seeding is taking water that might have fallen further downwind, where someone else would have had a claim to it. There is a lot of legislation and common law about these things and every state's laws are unique. Some more than others. I'm not saying our water laws work well, because I think many are wasteful and unfair, but our laws are what they are.
 
  • #17
What next? A permit to breathe the air that does not belong to me perhaps??
 
  • #18
Luckily for you and all of us, air is a public good. Meaning that no one has figured out how to privatize the atmosphere. The fact that you're breathing it doesn't limit someone else's ability to breathe it, assuming you have reasonably good oral hygiene. More importantly, no one has figured out how to prevent others from breathing the air (non-fatally, anyway). The drawback is that it's similarly difficult to prevent people from polluting the air and that definitely can create a situation in which their use of the air can limit someone else's use.
 
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