State looks at decriminalizing … rain barrels
Lawmakers to reconsider proposal to let people catch roof runoff
09.20.2015
Bob Unruh

It’s a resource that some regard as more valuable than the gold in Colorado’s mountains – the water that cascades down the rivulets, streams and rivers that drain the state’s high country of cloudbursts in the summer and snowmelt from the winter.

Now a dispute is being renewed over whether homeowners have the right to collect some of the water that runs off their roofs and use it for their gardens.

Amid a record-setting drought across parts of the American West, a move by the legislature last winter to allow water collection was defeated by water interests who argue that legally there is no unclaimed water in the state. Colorado is the headwaters for major drainages such as the Colorado and Platte Rivers, which flow to many other states.

And the state’s water law is very specific: Those who have the oldest claims get their water first.

A plan under consideration would authorize the barrels on several conditions, including that they be registered with the state. Another condition would be that water providers replace water taken from rooftops.

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Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/state-looks-a...KejRWRcYPVh1.99