Collecting rain water.

[Omega Woods]

Its been brought up for the second time our dot on the map restrictions collecting rain water...2 rain barrels not to exceed 110 gallons and can't use collected rain water for veggies...okay I am :confused2: about this one whats the harm,guess some states its a no-no.

Time to move!! No restrictions on rain water collection in Tennessee!

Who ever heard of such a thing?! It's RAIN from the SKY!

 

[John Fitzgerald]

That 110 gallon limit is a Colorado ordinance, not a New Hampshire one.

 

[Jstpssng]

If you don't use it for watering your garden, why bother collecting? I know that I can be finicky, but there's no way that I will drink water that ran off my asphalt shingles.
I was thinking of "Live Free or Die", before I saw your reference to it; perhaps it should be changed to "Just Die, and get it over with."

 

[newbury]

I collect rainwater for running my Woodmizer bandsaw, washing stuff, flushing the toilet.

 

[beowulf]

Well, being a curious guy. . . I found this:

It is actually illegal in Colorado to collect the rain that falls on your home​ - The Washington Post

And this quote from another site:

Historical Precedent
I think the Colorado Division of Water Resources website summarizes well the historical precedent in layman's terms: Colorado water law declares that the state of Colorado claims the right to all moisture in the atmosphere that falls within its borders and that said moisture is declared to be the property of the people of this state, dedicated to their use pursuant to the Colorado constitution. As a result, in much of the state, it is illegal to divert rainwater falling on your property expressly for a certain use unless you have a very old water right or during occasional periods when there is a surplus of water in the river system. This is especially true in the urban, suburban, and rural areas along the Front Range. This system of water allocation plays an important role in protecting the owners of senior water rights that are entitled to appropriate the full amount of their decreed water right, particularly when there is not enough to satisfy them and parties whose water right is junior to them.

So there's that. Maybe I have just lived too long.

 

[4570Man]

I have about 500 square feet of roof draining in a 2500 gallon tank. It only takes a couple of good rains to fill the tank. And all the water eventually gets returned to the ground. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea needs to go refigure what an insignificant portion of rain people collect. That’s on par with ships using ocean water to flush the toilets and thinking it’s draining the ocean. Another thought is our local city water supply is from lakes. Couldn’t you waste as much water as you want and it’s just going to evaporate and rain back in the lake?

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I have about 500 square feet of roof draining in a 2500 gallon tank. It only takes a couple of good rains to fill the tank. And all the water eventually gets returned to the ground. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea needs to go refigure what an insignificant portion of rain people collect. That’s on par with ships using ocean water to flush the toilets and thinking it’s draining the ocean. Another thought is our local city water supply is from lakes. Couldn’t you waste as much water as you want and it’s just going to evaporate and rain back in the lake?

A few years back, we rented a vacation house in St. Thomas USVI. Oddly, they do not have sufficient fresh water there for their needs; this house collected the rain water for household use, and was processed by a unit of some sort that was located in the basement...purportedly it cost $35,000...and the house was on septic. Electricity is very expensive there; generated with imported oil.

 

[bunyip]

We have two 2000 litre tanks for the horse troughs and two 25000 litre tanks for general use as well as what we call town water that you pay for.
There is a tax on dams in some parts as they claim it can reduce flow to streams but given that most dams are a small footprint in a large catchment area I think it is just revenue raising.
We don't pay any tax on the tanks and people are actively encouraged to install although I suspect that many people have no idea how much water they actually use, we see the big box stores selling 1000 litre tanks, people take them home and think they are going to be self sufficient until it runs dry two days later.
NB. Our tanks all have mosquito traps (?) on the inlets and outlets so they can't get in to breed.

 

[Wagtail]

We have two 2000 litre tanks for the horse troughs and two 25000 litre tanks for general use as well as what we call town water that you pay for.
There is a tax on dams in some parts as they claim it can reduce flow to streams but given that most dams are a small footprint in a large catchment area I think it is just revenue raising.
We don't pay any tax on the tanks and people are actively encouraged to install although I suspect that many people have no idea how much water they actually use, we see the big box stores selling 1000 litre tanks, people take them home and think they are going to be self sufficient until it runs dry two days later.
NB. Our tanks all have mosquito traps (?) on the inlets and outlets so they can't get in to breed.

Ditto... although I'm not on town water (horrible tasting stuff once you've imbibed pure rainwater), the entire house is plumbed to my 24000 litre tank; collected off of the house. The 5-bay shed supplies a 5000 litre tank that waters the horses. Both have anti-mozzie screens.

As a footnote, all large tanks (I'd say 10000 litre and above) must be fitted with a fire brigade valve so that the Firies can use your tank water in case of a bush fire emergency. Fair enough too, as they're going to use it to hopefully save properties (including your own).

That Colorado Division of Water Resources quote, tying it to the State's Constitution is a CROCK (of 'you know what')! It gets my hackles up; and I live on the other side of the world from there. All of the water that I've collected is eventually going back into the ground, approximately where it originally fell, mostly via my grey water field/French field.

 

[dmccarty]

Well, being a curious guy. . . I found this:

It is actually illegal in Colorado to collect the rain that falls on your home​ - The Washington Post
...

Some states out west have very different laws regarding water rights. The idea about restricting the catching of rain, is that the rain would eventually make it's way to a creek or river. Someone owns the water in that creek or river, and if one collects the rain water that would run into said river or creek, one would be taking the water owned by someone else.

CO has land ownership of the stream/river/creek bed, which some land owners claim allows them to restrict people's access to using the river. Not sure how that has played out but there were court cases about this I was following in the last century.

There is a county here in NC, where a company OWNS the ground water! :shocked: A landowner wanting to use a well has to pay the company for the water. When I heard about this years ago I was shocked and could not believe it. The story in the newspaper sure sounded like some fishy deals were done back in the day to allow this to happen...

Later,
Dan