Making Rainwater Harvesting Illegal

Ain't this a kick in the head? If'n it ain't one thing, it be another. I 'spose monsatano/novartis/sygenta/dow will soon be claiming the oxygen and sunlight. What an effed up mess, Billy. Never mind the thousands of Indian farmers committing suicide after being duped by monsatano.

formatting link
'em.

Charlie

formatting link
Latest Absurdity in the Fight to Conserve Water: Making Rainwater Harvesting Illegal By Yee Huang , Center for Progressive Reform Posted on April 13, 2009, Printed on April 17, 2009
formatting link
recent article in the Los Angeles Times described the latest absurdity in the never-ending search to quench the thirst for water: ownership of rainwater and, more precisely, the illegality of rainwater harvesting. Residents and communities in parts of Colorado are turning to this ancient practice of collecting and storing rain to fulfill their domestic water needs, including flushing toilets and watering lawns. Using this ?grey? water, as it is called, relieves pressure on water resources and can be extremely efficient.

Many long-time water users, however, object to the practice.

These so-called water buffaloes argue that people who collect rainwater are taking away from their water by collecting the water before it has a chance to flow into a river from which they obtain water. Effectively, they argue, the rainwater belongs to them ? they own the rain that falls from the sky as part of their water allocation, even though 97 percent of the rainfall that falls on soil does not reach a river. The bad news? The law in Colorado stands behind those water buffaloes.

Like most states west of the one-hundredth meridian, Colorado follows the doctrine of prior appropriation to allocate water. For all water uses that are non-domestic, a person must have a water right. Water rights are assigned a priority date, which is the date that the water use was initiated.

Under prior appropriation, these senior water users ? many of whom have rights dating back to the 1800?s ? have priority in times of water shortages based on the date of their initiation. Their water allocation is fulfilled before any junior users, who are often left with a nominal amount of water. People who harvest rainwater are ?interfering? with the priority system by jumping ahead of all the senior users, who have the first right to use the water.

This dogmatic adherence to temporal priority blocks efforts to acquire water rights for newer or more efficient uses, such as in-stream conservation and recreation. These uses, initiated relatively recently, will always be subordinate to older, more consumptive uses. Ownership of water has always been a tenuous proposition. Water and water rights linger on the perimeter of traditional property rights, eluding the solid ?property? categorization of items like land or salad bowls. Individual water molecules cannot be marked or identified, and water is in constant motion, swirling below, above, and around the earth in the global hydrologic cycle. More significantly, water is survival for the vast array of living creatures on this planet, so privatizing the world?s most precious liquid would necessarily create a divide between haves and have-nots. Whether or not water is definitively property has great legal implications for constitutional and civil claims, and courts have not given clear or consistent guidance. If, for example, water is considered a property right and the government required reduced water delivery to irrigators under the Endangered Species Act, those irrigators might have a valid claim for compensation under a Fifth Amendment takings claim. CPR Member Scholar Dan Tarlock blogged about this specific issue here. Categorizing water as a private property right also facilitates the commodification of water, which often ignores the common public interest in water quantity, quality, and viability.

Many water rights are colored by the public trust doctrine, which holds that certain natural resources cannot be privately owned and instead must be held in trust by the government for the use and benefit of the public. This doctrine, an inherent component of a water right, tends to support the argument that water is not a matter of private property. As inexpensive supplies of water dwindle, how water is viewed as a private property will become increasingly important to water allocation and priorities.

In other parts of the West, states are exploring the idea of rainwater harvesting. Santa Fe, New Mexico, became the first city to require by ordinance rainwater harvesting on all new residential or commercial structures of a certain size. Tucson, Arizona, became the first city to require rainwater harvesting to provide 50 percent of landscape-irrigation needs. Even Colorado has reconsidered its position, recently passing a bill that permits extremely limited instances of rainwater harvesting. It remains illegal for most individual residents to harvest rainwater.

Given an increase in population and per capita consumption, coupled with water needs to restore and maintain aquatic ecosystems, perhaps those water buffaloes need to lower their horns and let other creatures sip from the limited watering holes in the West.

Yee Huang, J.D., L.L.M, joined the Center for Progressive Reform as a Policy Analyst in December 2008. Her public interest experience includes internships with the Department of State in Vienna, Austria, and Windhoek, Namibia. © 2009 Center for Progressive Reform All rights reserved. View this story online at:

formatting link

Reply to
Charlie
Loading thread data ...

Charlie wrote: > ...Even Colorado has reconsidered its

Eff that. The rain that falls on my property is mine (if I can catch it) until I am done with it. It's not like I can actually destroy it.

What are they gonna do, send [strike]Janet Reno[/strike] Eric Holder in to burn down my house and family like they did in Waco if I don't comply?

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

(snip)

Lordie!

The LA Times doesn't have a clue.

Captured rainwater is prime drinking water and it's a waste to merely consider it useful for flushing the loo or watering the lawn. "Grey water" is water that is preloved and has already been through the shower or the kitchen sink etc.

formatting link
Many long-time water users, however, object to the practice.

What planet are these water buffaloes from?

Reply to
FarmI

riot and throw Bechtel out of the country for trying to pull the same shit (criminalizing the collecting of rainwater).

Reply to
Billy

I don't know why it is called grey water, I use rainwater for all my hosehold purposes and the quality is far better than town water.

Here the law is much more sensible. Everybody has a "harvestable right" which is a percentage of the rain that falls on your property. This determines how big your storage can be. As long as you comply with that there is no issue. Extracting water from permanent waterways and bore water are managed separately and it's more complex but I can (for example) pump from the river for "domestic" puposes without a license or any complaint from those who have irrigation licenses (I have one of those too).

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

formatting link
the Los Angeles Times Who owns Colorado's rainwater?

The author, Nicholas Riccardi, is obviously a reflection of his urban environment, Los Angeles. Aside from his inability to use the vocabulary of gardening, he does, indirectly, call attention to where the neo-liberals want to take us (freedom of the market place trumps human rights). To that bright future, where if you want water, you call Bechtel, or if you want food, you call Monsanto.

Reply to
Billy

Don't shoot the messenger. The LA Times was merely reporting what is happening in Colorado.

Today's LA Times has an article on how some homeowners in California are capturing and storing rain water. The article mentions that some California cities are rewarding homeowners who capture rainwater for personal use. This is quite opposite of the situation in Colorado.

Different states have different laws.

Reply to
David E. Ross

Hey Fran!

Many americans have no clue. Cisterns were a standard feature with many, if not most, homes many decades ago, but with the advent of municipal and rural water, most fell into disrepair and disuse and now, for most people, are a forgotten relic. And still a danger to kids and others.

True. As is happeing in Oz, many in parts of our country should be preparing for tightening water supplies. As a matter of principle, and conservation, we *all* should be going this route.

Arrakis, House Harkonnen

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie

g'day charlie,

in our state over here we have had water regulations for about 9 years. that states that they the state gov' own 90% of what rain falls from the sky. we don't have to like it (and i'm only the messenger) that's how it is, "they" would rather the rain run into the sea, as they own all of that and along the way.

anyhow as we on oz race onto the privatisation of all water so profits can be made, all states will have similar laws on their books just waiting to be acted on. but suppose they are acting on them in suttle ways.

silly part is most have fallen over themselves to avail of the free handout tank rebates offered country wide. well at least now they know who has the tanks so they can bill you accord snipped With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."

formatting link

Reply to
len gardener

I was shooting the reporter because he referred to rain water as "gray water" thus obfuscating his report. As I'm sure you know, gray water is used water, but not sewage. After the first few minutes of a rain, the water is about as pure as you'll find.

It was an important "heads up" only slightly diminished by misleading vocabulary.

Reply to
Billy

Where are the large worms when you really need them. Come to think of it I encourage spice on a much lesser scale.

Bill "Dune" see Sting as Feyd-Rautha

Reply to
Bill

The scare here is beware of the acid rain. Tied into the idea that the snow is full of pollutants and the gist sort of becomes anything natural is bad. I do not believe this and have encouraged my kids to ingest as seems fit and on those warm pleasant rains to go about and dance.

STD disclaimers apply and please note I concur with the admonishment to not eat the yellow snow.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Hey Len!

Creeping incrementalism.....less chance of an out and out revolt by the sheep. No need to start a stampede.

Heh heh......I've always said and warned the boys about "no such thing as a free lunch". You are right, the rebate system more than pays for itself in the long haul. Never give out yout confidentials and privates in return for a few beans. There is no golden goose at the top.

Bill you for the gift of rain.......what a freekin' load.

Hmmm...guess folks need to be building their houses over a huge water tank, errr, basement.

And to you as well.

Charlie

?Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.? -- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Reply to
Charlie

snipped

yep the sheep have no idea what's what, and by the time they go figure the horse would have well and truely bolted. but try to tell them now whlst their heads are buried in sattelite sport of tv forget it.

snipped

yep too true.

too late for me now as the home is a second ahnd one but if ever i were to build again yes for sure.

snipped With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."

formatting link

Reply to
len gardener

This comes from the pollution of the environment. There is no clean up by the owners of smoke stacks, so the cost falls to the state (re:tax payers). This is call "Privatize the Profits and Socialize the Costs".

I was told that dancing in the rain, half naked, after a drought was awesome. AFTERWARDS, dealing with the paperwork, she told me that I should have had a privacy fence. Kinda hurts a guy's self esteem;O)

Funny, Frank said the same thing.

Speaking of "yellow snow", I noticed my daughters name written in the "yellow snow" outside our house. I asked my daughter about it and she said that it was a common thing for a boy to do, these days. She didn't really have a good answer, though, as to why it was in her hand writing.

Reply to
Billy

g'day david,

"said, California cities are rewarding homeowners who capture rainwater for personal use."

be a sting in the tail of this one i reckon.

snipped With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

-- "Be Content With What You Have And May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In A World That You May Not Understand."

formatting link

Reply to
len gardener

When I see the muck that runs off my roof, through my rain gutters, and out the drains after the first rain of the season (generally after more than 200 rainless days), I can easily understand why rain water might be equated with gray water. The grayness of rain water is even worse if winds have deposited ash from wild fires onto the lee side my roof.

Reply to
David E. Ross

The article says nothing about collected rainwater _being_ greywater, only that it is _considered_ greywater. i.e. not pure enough to meet contemporary drinking water standards. When one considers what birds leave on your roof there is certainly merit to that.

More questionable is Colorado's contention that rainwater should be allowed to flow onto the ground and eventually to a stream. I'd contend that harvested rainwater does just that. If I dump in on my garden it is going onto the ground just a surely as if I hadn't been there in the first place. If I choose to risk drinking it then it will either 1) go into the municipal sewage system and eventually make it downhill to that stream or

2) go into my septic system or privy out back. In any case it will eventually be flowing into the groundwater. About the only way it wouldn't do that would be if I carefully collected the rainwater and shipped it to the other side of the continental divide(s) and dumped/used it there. That is about the only way it wouldn't make it into the local Colorado aquifer or river by some route.
Reply to
John McGaw

Reply to
dr-solo

there is a big movement in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for people to get rain barrels and capture water for irrigation because it lessens the burden on the sewage system.

Reply to
dr-solo

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.