legality of water catchment

[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.

[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 ).

That said, I believe the law is out of date and needs to be changed for people living in urban areas because runoff stormwater is more of a problem for downstream communities than it is a boon.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).

[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 ).

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.

[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.

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.

[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.