Who owns the rain?

[Major]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/u...s-raindrops-drought.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=1

Water is precious in the arid West, now more than ever as the worst drought in decades bakes fields in California and depletes reservoirs across the region. To encourage conservation, cities and water agencies in California and other states have begun nudging homeowners to use captured rain for their gardens, rather than water from the backyard faucet.

But Colorado is one of the last places in the country where rainwater barrels are still largely illegal because of a complex system of water rights in which nearly every drop is spoken for.

And when legislators here tried to enact a law this spring to allow homeowners to harvest the rain, conservationists got a lesson in the power of the entrenched rules that allocate Western water to those who have first claim to it. Even if it is the rain running down someone’s roof.

I love this part...

“It’s actually stealing,” said State Senator Jerry Sonnenberg, a Republican from Sterling, a northeastern farming and ranching town on the plains, who voted against the rain barrel measure when it landed in the Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee he leads. “You might say, it’s a little bit of water, just a barrelful, how much damage could that do to someone downstream?”

But, he continued, “If it’s just a little bit, why wouldn’t we allow everyone go to into 7-Eleven and take just one bottle of water, just a little bit?”

Collecting rainwater from your own property is like stealing from a retailer? What a ridiculous comparison.

I get that water is a precious resource, especially in the western states, but I can't even fathom it being illegal to collect raindrops.

Here's an idea. Maybe try doing something about some of the things that are causing water shortages, like overpopulation and climate change.

 

[Hilander]

That this the dumbest thing I ever heard but in water shortages people are going to fight over those droplets. Just wait until countries are fighting over it.

Personally I think if it falls on your property it yours and nothing wrong with collecting it in a barrel.

If I ever have to move to another state first thing before I do I'm going to check on laws like this.

 

[Smelnick]

I mean wow, really? That's just stupid plain and simple. Fucking political businesses and vice versa etc.