Who Does Rainwater Belong To?
One of the greatest steps forward that local communities have taken of late is the push to collect rainwater to offset your water use. It is often an easy way to help out the environment and, in the long run, simply save water. There don’t really seem to be any catches to it either. Rain falls from the sky, hits your roof and runs in to your drums or barrels or tanks.
If only it were that simple.
Notch up another one for the members of the Idiots Anonymous who have apparently been camping out in Bellingham, Washington. Apparently, rainwater doesn’t actually belong to individuals, but to the state as a whole. Therefore, all the wonderful efforts of communities to collect water are actually illegal.
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Not just frowned upon, or morally unethical, or shifty – all of which water collection is not – but actually illegal, so much so that in the future such legalities could be used in a court of law.
It comes down once again to the simple fact that humanity is doomed to an ever continuing cycle of idiot and misanthropic events and situations that will, eventually, simply wear down those of us with half a brain, and leave planet Earth populated by half-wits and mimes (often the same thing).
This information is coming to us from the Bellingham Herald, who recently ran a story entitled “Does saving rainwater violate state law?” by Jennifer Langston. “We’re not going to start issuing permits for a pickle barrel in the backyard. But what if it’s four pickle barrels or a system that has 20,000 gallons of storage?” said Brian Walsh, a manager in the Department of Ecology’s water resources program.
Mr. Walsh, manager of the Department of Ecology, who the hell cares if it’s 2 million! It is rainwater you simpleton. It is wet water, falling from the clouds in the sky, on to roof’s and paddocks which may very well be decked out with enough pickle barrels to quench the thirst of a small army, like Canada’s. But unless someone is filling their aforementioned barrel from a river or other form of wet estuary, what right minded individual is going to attempt to enforce this law?
According to Langston, Seattle has obtained a citywide water-right permit, which allows for rain to be collected from most rooftops in the city. The “most” there refers to the few neighborhoods, mostly areas north of 85th street that see their stormwater empty into creeks and streams and lakes.
Just how is this stormwater making its way from Joe Bloggs’ roof and backyard out in to the streets and gutters so that it can then run into whatever lake lies at the end of it. How much rain is already soaked up by the grass that covers many a backyard? Is that grass acting illegally hogging all that water for itself?
If this law is not soon revoked, then my faith in humanity will once again drop another few notches down. And while Washington state lawmakers may not be out to please Joshua S. Hill of Melbourne, Australia, one can at least hope that they are going to try and use at least a modicum of common sense. It’d be a change, sure, but it’s a change for the better!
Update - thanks to cchiovitti who, in the comments below, alerted us to the fact that Eastern Colorado also has similar restrictions on who owns rainwater. Make sure to leave a comment if your state has decided to take a leave of absence from their senses as well.
credit: Pete Baugh at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
If those cities ant to “own” water falling from the sky that’s great!
Wait until they get my bill for water collection and distribution services. I also screen my gutters, so I’m probably also going to institute an advanced-technology filtering system fee.
And there’s also the damage that thousands (millions, billions?) of raindrops causes on my roof (damage deposit), not to mention “their” rain knocks down leaves and branches from MY trees.
And there’s a cleaning fee (from aforementioned downed leaves and limbs) and let’s not forget the cost of pain and suffering and humiliation when “their” rain gets me wet (WITH NO NOTICE!!!)
This could be a sweet deal. I can hardly wait for this idea to catch on.
EASTERN COLORADO: Yes, I’ve lived there (Akron, Greeley, Las Animas) and other parts of the state, so I understand how Byzantine Colo. water laws are. I suggest that you ignore them because no one is stupid enough to go after their water rights from your rain barrels. I suggest that you file a “wind rights” claim as fast as you can, so you can pocket some of that money blowing by on the way to those huge wind mills.
So, while driving through one of these ‘we own the rain’ towns listening to the latest hit single, “Who Owns the Rain?”, I am in some manner injured because of the rain, who exactly do I get to sue for rain damages?
So if the state owns the rainwater can you sue for flood damage? Or perhaps send them the bill for new gutters?
One pickle barrel will not make a difference. Four pickle barrels will not make any difference either. But 2 million pickle barrels? Yes it will make a hell of a difference.
Rain water constitutes a major portion of groundwater that is drawn up from wells and is supplied to populated areas as drinking water and for other water requirements. There are landlocked lakes that get water not from rivers or streams but from rain water seeping into the ground. 2 million water barrels might not be a regular guy’s rain water reserve.
But consider this, what if a corporation buys a huge (I mean HUGE) tract of land, and installs rain water harvesting systems over the entire land, and uses the water for it own commercial purposes… The ground water table in my opinion will dry off very fast. And then the wells feeding off this underwater table go dry, and following which the population goes dry as well… The huge tract of land might appear ’stupid’ to some people, it would have to be too large to make substantial damage to the under water table, but what if a number of companies or corporations buy lands, which together amount to be very large?
The laws might sound very stupid at first glance, and rain water harvesting should be promoted and encouraged even more, but long term effects and all scenarios, good and bad, should be considered before passing laws, and judgements……
Seems to me the places in the West with water issues stem from the fact that people are trying to farm in areas where they really shouldn’t. Man’s artificial attempt to bring water into the dessert is the cause of the fighting over water.
Dumb laws….
I can understand that the city needs the rain to go into the ground. Obviously if massive amounts of people were collecting rainwater and just leaving it to languish in the barrels or shipping it off to another state, the effect on the city would be a drought. Maybe that’s what the idiots who drafted this law were thinking, but apparently they didn’t think about what the people actually do with the rainwater they collect. The few people I know who collect it use it on their own property, mostly for watering plants. So the water cycle isn’t really interrupted at all. So I don’t see the point of this inane law.
If the government ownes the water, wouldn’t you be able to sue them for waste disposal on your lawn on a rainy day?
Texas exempts rainwater systems from sales tax and some cities offer rebates on the cost of the system. There’s also a law preventing HOA’s from restricting the systems. A quick search might help you get a system installed, if it’s allowed in your area.
This makes me think of the movie Idiocracy.
Hmm, so that means that if I leave an expensive silk blouse outside and it is rained upon, I can sue the state for damages? You own it, it damaged my property.