legality of water catchment

[hatidua]

I've tried to research this online but seem to be finding conflicting information. Is it legal for a city dweller in CO to save water that falls on my roof for my garden? (assuming any water ever falls on my roof)...

[Robb]

Maybe. I just did a quick serch as I had been wondering about the same thing. I'm SOL as I'm city water.

http://earth911.com/news/2009/07/03/colorado-bill-legalizes-rainwater-harvesting/

http://water.state.co.us/DWRDocs/News/NewsArticles/Pages/RainwaterHarvesting.aspx

[Delfuego]

Not only no, but F*** no! Pretty much every drop of water in Colorado is spoken for downstream. You are not allow to catch, divert or collect any water without explicit "water rights". If you buy land in the mountains in Colorado with a stream on your land, it is probably still not your water.

Sucks huh...

[00tec]

You can't catch it, and they will tax you for runoff. Beautiful

[Wulf202]

Catchment is only legal for those not able to have city water and No functional well.

[StagLefty]

Damndest thing I ever heard of -rain isn't free to use !!! [facepalm]

[Ronin13]

Damndest thing I ever heard of -rain isn't free to use !!! [facepalm]
That's what I was thinking; you mean to tell me it's illegal to collect rain water? As if I'm taking that much in... It's not like I've got a 200 sq ft funnel over my property collecting as much as possible.

[hatidua]

A New York Times piece on rain catchment down in Durango:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html?_r=0

[Delfuego]

News to me! Little bit more info.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/natres/06702.html

http://www.dailycamera.com/lifestyles/ci_20934361/harvesting-rain-colorado-takes-redirection

[drift_g35]

I though this was recently changed. Like within the last year. I may be wrong though. I will try to dig up the article.

[newracer]

I though this was recently changed. Like within the last year. I may be wrong though. I will try to dig up the article.

I also thought it was recently changed.

[drowe44]

The following info comes from the Colorado Division of Water Resources web page:
Rooftop Precipitation Collection
Although it is permissible to direct your residential property roof downspouts toward landscaped areas, unless you own a specific type of exempt well permit, you cannot collect rainwater in any other manner, such as storage in a cistern or tank, for later use. Please review our publications below, as well as links to CSU Extension's information on this topic and Colorado law on the subject as written in the Colorado Revised Statutes, before applying for a Rooftop Precipitation Collection System Permit (http://www.ar-15.co/DWRIPub/Documents/gws-78.pdf). If your well has not been registered, you will also need to Register an Existing Well (http://www.ar-15.co/groundwater/wellpermit/WellType/Pages/RegisterExistingWell.aspx) before applying.
Rainwater Harvesting Pilot Projects
House Bill 09-1129 allows for Pilot Projects for the Beneficial Use of Captured Precipitation in New Real Estate Developments. The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) has developed criteria and guidelines (http://cwcbweblink.state.co.us/WebLink/ElectronicFile.aspx?docid=142162&searchid=c25573eb-f1b7-4b8c-9810-6dd02adee4e2&&dbid=0) for applications and the selection process for new development pilot projects to evaluate the feasibility of rainwater harvesting as a water conservation measure in Colorado, when paired with efficient landscaping and irrigation practices.

[Colorado Osprey]

I also thought it was recently changed.

It did last year... people on domestic wells with no access to city/municipal water systems can now collect their rooftop melt/rain for later use in a garden, landscaping, etc.
City dwellers-no-go.
People living in any city will still not be allowed to collect their rain water.... at least at this time.

[HoneyBadger]

It did last year... people on domestic wells with no access to city/municipal water systems can now collect their rooftop melt/rain for later use in a garden, landscaping, etc.
City dwellers-no-go.
People living in any city will still not be allowed to collect their rain water.... at least at this time.


As of last August, collecting rainwater for any reason within the City of Colorado Springs brought a $500 fine for the first offense. It sounds like my info might be outdated though, so do your own research and don't take my word on it.

[Bailey Guns]

Yeah. I was told by someone I couldn't collect the rainwater from my roof as it belonged to the C&C of Denver. Fine. Then Denver can keep their damn water off my roof. If they don't keep it off my roof, I'll continue to collect it.

[palepainter]

I collect mine from one spot, due to engineering that the county of Boulder approved. I have one drop spout right were it is causing my driveway slab to collapse. I didn't do this, previous owner designed the drainage system. So I collect it and use it to water landscaping in the front of the house. They can kiss my ass. Perhaps If I am fined, I will sue them for negligence in approval of permitted design.

[kidicarus13]

Rain is God-given so quench your bodies, water your plants and vegetation, and prosper. For all of those that claim it is theirs, come on my property and get it.

[CO Hugh]

Not sure what the penalty is.

[Professor Frink]

Fellow I bought my house from was quite the landscaper. He told me he had just finished building a circulating pond system that woud flow from the front of the house, around the side, and to the back before being pumped back to the front. He claimed some county guy showed-up and made him go around with a screwdriver and poke holes in the plastic liner and threatened him with a significant fine if he didn't comply.

[Ronin13]

Yeah. I was told by someone I couldn't collect the rainwater from my roof as it belonged to the C&C of Denver. Fine. Then Denver can keep their damn water off my roof. If they don't keep it off my roof, I'll continue to collect it.
[LOL]That's awesome!

Rain is God-given so quench your bodies, water your plants and vegetation, and prosper. For all of those that claim it is theirs, come on my property and get it.
I'll give it back to whoever says they have a claim to it... can't guarantee it hasn't already passed through my digestive system and been deposited into my bladder first though. [Coffee]

[DingleBerns]

I'll give it back to whoever says they have a claim to it... can't guarantee it hasn't already passed through my digestive system and been deposited into my bladder first though. [Coffee]

You drink the water? or from the food....My water looks poop brown from my wooden shingles.

[Ronin13]

You drink the water? or from the food....My water looks poop brown from my wooden shingles.
Purification- if I ever do collect rain water... I've only done it a couple times, but it doesn't touch the roof- direct from sky!

[mdflem51]

Lawyers! Up here in Bailey there was a catchment near the elementary screwell..I used to comment to my other half..That guy`s gonna` get busted.. She would look at me like I was nuts.. Soon it was gone.

Roy Romer drives that road often..coincidence?

[centrarchidae]

This is Colorado. Colorado water law has two simple rules:

1) Every single drop belongs to somebody.

2) That somebody is never you.

[losttrail]

The state of Colorado yet again proves its idiocy on this matter. Laws on the books that all water must run off to some other state while Colorado exists in drought conditions.

If catchment were allowed, people would be able to contain water from gutters and use it for watering lawns, drinking, washing cars, etc. rather than pumping from wells, lowering aquifers and reservoirs. Eventually the water would make its way to the 'foreigners', but the residents of CO would benefit first and water would be contained within Colorado longer.

It's kind of like Kalifornia where there is virtually no beaver population left so no beaver dams in the mountains to help hold water. Combine that with the concrete ditches that prevent water from seeping into the soil naturally and the San Joaquin Valley is virtually a desert except where irrigated by man. Nature has been circumvented.

[Scogin]

So here is what a friend is looking at doing. He has a small garden tool shed at the back of his yard. It sits at the highest part of his property. He thinks he can fit 6 55 gallon water storage drums inside it. If he plumbs these all together and keep them in the shed nobody should know they are there. To fill them he thinks he can run underground sprinkler line from the shed to the rain drain spout at the side of the house. When it rains he will put a 19 gallon keg bucket with a sump pump in it under the drain spout. Hook the pump to the underground fill lines and let it fill the shed with water. He would have to put in some kind of overfill drain so it doesn't soak the inside of the shed. Also a faucet at the bottom of one drum to hook up a hose for watering the garden, but other than that he should be good to go.

He would never actually do this because it is against the law, but does anyone with more knowledge of these things see any design flaws or easy improvements that could be made before he starts construction?

[newracer]

Will the cost of running the pump to fill the drums outweigh the cost savings of the water? Water is pretty cheap compared to electricity.

He should figure out a way to fill everything by gravity or natural pressure.

[Ronin13]

Okay, to illustrate how stupid this is, I drew a picture (bear with me, I'm no artist)- not to scale:
27037
Just by this diagram, the water you "take away" from the storm amounts to roughly .01%. Pardon my pun, but it's barely a drop in the bucket. Forgive me, I'm using logic here.

[lowbeyond]

ghey. its rain. its falling on your roof. do what you want and screw whatever the law says.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I find it kind of funny that I (having obviously been born and raised outside Colorado) understand the water rights sensitivities behind the current laws but all these native Coloradans are saying the law is "ghey". Maybe I just read too much Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour growing up but these laws have their roots in very deep and very reasonable protections of water rights across a wide arid region. What I resent are the EPA and other laws saying I have to minimize stormwater run-off when preserving downstream access to that run-off is one of the reasons behind these laws.

[Jeffrey Lebowski]

The state of Colorado yet again proves its idiocy on this matter. Laws on the books that all water must run off to some other state while Colorado exists in drought conditions.


This absolutely kills me, and would be much worse if I lived on the Western Slope.
Several counties have all these goofy restrictions so we can send the water on down the line.

My parents, in the middle of the desert NW of Phoenix (think Lake Pleasant-ish) live in a golf course community with water features that just launch the water into the air. I'm sure none of it comes back down.
It looks beautiful, but enjoy your restrictions, Colorado. We need to do this sort of silliness down in Arizona.

[Zundfolge]

I find it kind of funny that I (having obviously been born and raised outside Colorado) understand the water rights sensitivities behind the current laws but all these native Coloradans are saying the law is "ghey". Maybe I just read too much Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour growing up but these laws have their roots in very deep and very reasonable protections of water rights across a wide arid region. What I resent are the EPA and other laws saying I have to minimize stormwater run-off when preserving downstream access to that run-off is one of the reasons behind these laws.

I agree that the knee-jerk reaction to Colorado's water laws are short sighted and without historical context (and in all fairness I thought they were stupid until I looked into them more ... and I'm originally from Kansas, so I should have known better :p ).

That said, I believe the law is out of date and needs to be changed for people living in urban areas because runoff stormwater is more of a problem for downstream communities than it is a boon. Hell, Pueblo is ready to sue Colorado Springs if they get much more stormwater coming down Fountain Creek because of the Waldo Canyon Fire.

Simply allow collection but limit it to X square feet of hard surface and/or X gallons of water and/or require water to be cycled so often (for example you must dump the water you've collected once a quarter or something like that ... to avoid water hoarding and mosquito trouble) and forbid transport of said water off the property (so you avoid people collecting massive amounts of rain water to be sold elsewhere ... which is REALLY what this is about preventing).

[Bailey Guns]

So here is what a friend is looking at doing. He has a small garden tool shed at the back of his yard. It sits at the highest part of his property. He thinks he can fit 6 55 gallon water storage drums inside it. If he plumbs these all together and keep them in the shed nobody should know they are there. To fill them he thinks he can run underground sprinkler line from the shed to the rain drain spout at the side of the house. When it rains he will put a 19 gallon keg bucket with a sump pump in it under the drain spout. Hook the pump to the underground fill lines and let it fill the shed with water. He would have to put in some kind of overfill drain so it doesn't soak the inside of the shed. Also a faucet at the bottom of one drum to hook up a hose for watering the garden, but other than that he should be good to go.

He would never actually do this because it is against the law, but does anyone with more knowledge of these things see any design flaws or easy improvements that could be made before he starts construction?

Your "friend" sounds like a resourceful guy. (Or, like my friend says, a "fart smeller".)

[Coffee]

[sabot_round]

I agree that the knee-jerk reaction to Colorado's water laws are short sighted and without historical context (and in all fairness I thought they were stupid until I looked into them more ... and I'm originally from Kansas, so I should have known better :p ).

That said, I believe the law is out of date and needs to be changed for people living in urban areas because runoff stormwater is more of a problem for downstream communities than it is a boon. Hell, Pueblo is ready to sue Colorado Springs if they get much more stormwater coming down Fountain Creek because of the Waldo Canyon Fire.

Simply allow collection but limit it to X square feet of hard surface and/or X gallons of water and/or require water to be cycled so often (for example you must dump the water you've collected once a quarter or something like that ... to avoid water hoarding and mosquito trouble) and forbid transport of said water off the property (so you avoid people collecting massive amounts of rain water to be sold elsewhere ... which is REALLY what this is about preventing).

The problem with your proposal is...how do you enforce it? The solution is to get rid of water restrictions on rain that falls in your backyard.

SR

[Dave_L]

I've *heard* of people burying water tanks and installing a small, electric pump to pump the water out. Or course, that's all hearsay. :)

[brianut]

something i have considered is to tap into my 2nd story shower and tub drains and run a line outside to multiple barrels foryard watering, yes we mighthave to change soapsbut it would be lots of water from a family of 4.

[SamuraiCO]

Many garden supply website have rain catchment containers that look like walls or wooden fences and blend into your landscape. You can also use animal water troughs. I used those for pools for my dogs to cool off during the summer they powers don't know they get filed with rain runoff.

Funny how they get all butt hurt about this but I have a 500 gallon plus pondless waterfall in my backyard that is perfectly legal. It will catch rain and is auto filled when I run my irrigation.

You can always purchase and have ready to use in SHTF situations. Or you can crank up Judas Priest "Breaking the Law" and set one up anyway.

[palepainter]

I have given this topic just a small bit of thought. Here is something to consider. Are we really retaining water or just delaying it's delivery to California by catching it and using it to water our garden or lawn? Talk amongst yourselves.

[Coffee]

[Irving]

Want a water catchment system? It's called a hottub. Who's going to know it was rainwater and not your hose that filled?

[Rabid]

I have given this topic just a small bit of thought. Here is something to consider. Are we really retaining water or just delaying it's delivery to California by catching it and using it to water our garden or lawn? Talk amongst yourselves.

[Coffee]
If you go a little further there is a chance you have drank Cleopatra's bath water. It all gets recycled but the problem is the law of prior appropriation Kalifornia has more rights to our water then we do even though it falls out of the sky here.

[SamuraiCO]

You would think having all that coast line and people smarter than you or I Kalifornia would have some type of solar or wind water desalination plants up and down their coast to supply their water needs.

[SAnd]

something i have considered is to tap into my 2nd story shower and tub drains and run a line outside to multiple barrels foryard watering, yes we mighthave to change soaps but it would be lots of water from a family of 4.
It smells funny for a while. It's usually less than a day but occasionally (rarely) up to 48 hours. My neighbor does that so I generally know whenever he waters his grass. I don't know if changing soap would make any difference. I don't really find it objectionable but it is there.

[BuffCyclist]

I have given this topic just a small bit of thought. Here is something to consider. Are we really retaining water or just delaying it's delivery to California by catching it and using it to water our garden or lawn? Talk amongst yourselves.

[Coffee]

Exactly, you are just taking water from point A and moving it to point B. Your gutters do this and it isn't illegal to have gutters on your house.

Personally, living in New Mexico, from May 1st to November 31st we are under water restrictions. If your house number ends in an odd number, you can water on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Ends in even number, you water Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. No one gets to water on Mondays. And you can only water between 6pm and 9am, so the water doesn't evaporate in the middle of the day.

The catch 22 is that everyone down here has evaporative coolers that spill out hundreds of gallons of water per day. When I first bought our house and realized we couldn't keep anything growing, I built a trash can water collection system. I have my evaporative cooler run off hose (that forces water out by the water pump in the cooler) going to a float valve that is at the top of a 35gal trashcan. At the bottom of that trashcan, I bought 2 bulkhead hose fittings (meant for evaporative cooler drain tubs) and connected a second trash 35gal trashcan. Then put another bulkhead fitting at the bottom of the first trashcan so use with a hose.

Our new evaporative cooler fills up those two trash cans in a matter of 4-6 hours. Sure, the water is a little saltier, but now that it is plumbed properly, you can not taste the salt in the water. The old cooler just had an overflow drain, so that water was saltier than seawater.

When I want to use the water, I simply take the garden hose connected to the trashcans and move it around to the base of whatever tree I want to water. I've got 2 apple trees, 1 peach tree, and 1 nectarine tree that suck up tons of water and produce lots of fruit (last year we got 40lbs of peaches, 30lbs of nectarines, and 15lbs of apples). This year we should get more because we are spraying for bugs and have nets over them to prevent the birds from eating all of the fruit before its fully ripened.

In addition, this water collection system allows me to water on our off watering days. Let me tell you, it makes a world of difference in being able to grow things. And as far as I know, it isn't against the law. In fact, I'm actually saving the aquifers, as I'm taking the water that would just drain off during the day and evaporate and collecting it to redistribute when it'll actually soak into the ground.

I thought about getting a small pond pump to get some water pressure, but the gravity feed works well enough.

[Irving]

Buffcyclist, you have better water restrictions than I do in Thornton. Only two days a week of watering for me.

[BuffCyclist]

Buffcyclist, you have better water restrictions than I do in Thornton. Only two days a week of watering for me.

Oh really? Thats a little surprising actually. We don't have grass though, front and backyards are xeriscaped so that saves us a bunch of water.

Anyways, when we just had our huge water leak, we wasted 60,000 gallons BEFORE the city came out to shut off our water. We normally only use around 3000 gallons per month. You'd think they'd setup an auto-shutoff if you use like 3 times your normal amount. And if you wanted to fill a pool or hottub, you'd need to call them and let them know. Simple enough if you ask me. Luckily, we only had to pay about $70 of that $350 water bill, but still.

[Irving]

I came home to a $300 water bill after my wedding. I've never lived in a house where I had to do the sprinklers myself and I didn't know that watering 7 days a week and 30 minutes a zone was too much. My grass looked great. It floated, but it looked great.

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Catch the water from your clothes washer and water your lawn with it. One of my co workers does this.

[Dingo]

Just the fact that Big Brother says I can't do it now means that I will try. :-) I may have to take up gardening just for the heck of it now.

[JackRyan]

So Its illegal to catch water in any way in CO? If your backpacking and your out of water and need to refill your water bottle, Are you in touble for refilling your bottle from a stream, lake ect...

[ChunkyMonkey]

Not sure how everyone keeps saying its illegal.

http://www.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2009A/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/49D4349AC4A73794872575370071F5D4?Open&file=080_enr.pdf

There is a permit.. $40 fee I believe.

[ChunkyMonkey]

because that says its illegal for anyone who is connected to a water system. city people dont get to do it. it narrows it down to a very very limited amount of people who can do it LEGALLY.

Whoops.. glad my neighbors are all cool. I stand corrected.

[Irving]

So Its illegal to catch water in any way in CO? If your backpacking and your out of water and need to refill your water bottle, Are you in touble for refilling your bottle from a stream, lake ect...

No. You taking water for immediate consumption is not really catchment.

[mraganpbr]

it is a gamble but you can get around it this way
http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=nlB08Spw79IuAM&tbnid=9Ui_37ZzSxi2_M:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rainxchange.com%2F&ei=ltgLUsqfPLKByQGCr4DQBQ&psig=AFQjCNG7Hz4uYGH4RqqVkNU1Pd4CAk9YWg&ust=1376594437246740

[Aloha_Shooter]

I wouldn't even go so far as to say the laws are clearly not right. I can understand those who want to say the laws are antiquated and don't make sense to those of us who come from areas of the country that AREN'T sensitive about water rights but these laws were passed as a by-product of an era when water rights could mean the survival of a man's crop or herd. They are there so people upstream can't divert or block water than people downstream have come to expect as part of the natural flow. What clearly ISN'T right is how California has been using more water than they're entitled to for decades and tried to strongarm the Western states into retroactively adjusting California's entitlement upwards to match their past overuse.

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this area(now a state) sought out and settled to provided the more fertile soil with the water lacked?

[Aloha_Shooter]

HBAR,

Yep, I know. I'm just surprised that so many Colorado "natives" seem to be ignorant of why we have the water laws we do (I fully understand why Kalipornians and Nu Yawkers are ignorant). Maybe I just read too many Westerns while I was growing up.

[Zundfolge]

Can't catch rainwater ... can't buy >15 round mags ... can't sell a gun to a friend without involving the state ... the more vexing and intrusive the law becomes the less I really care to follow it.

I have no plans to do any of those things but you know what, if the mood comes over me to do so then I'll just leave y'all with a choice Chuck D quote.

[Skullworks]

So all the buckets in my garage that have been collecting the water from the leaking roof are illegal? Fine - buy me a new roof, and I won't need buckets.

[SamuraiCO]

And to think you can build a pool or waterscape of any size and that's ok.

[th3w01f]

The last couple of years I've noticed that every Home Depot I go in the metro area has the down spout systems for sale with names like "Rain diverter pro".