The laws vary slightly, but it’s actually illegal to collect rainwater in much of these three states. Why?
The governments claim that the rain belongs to someone else! That “someone else” refers to these governments themselves.
These laws have been around for a long time, but with recent droughts and a push for water conservation around the world, they have been brought up once again.
Restrictions vary among different areas of the states and legislators have passed some laws to help ease the restrictions. In Colorado, two new laws were recently passed that exempt certain small-scale rainwater collection systems, like the kind people might install on their homes, from collection restrictions.
Why would these laws even be in effect? Well it might have to do with the idea that collecting water prevents it from filling lakes, rivers and streams, essentially arguing that you would prevent water from getting where it needs to go.
Studies that have looked at this have, to no surprise, shown that this isn’t the case.
