The Pros And Cons Of Rainwater Collection Laws

Improved Essays
Claims that it is illegal to collect rainwater in some states are both true and false.
Eleven states have passed laws regarding the collection of rainwater, but those laws do not necessarily make it illegal. Some states actually offer tax incentives to encourage people to setup their own rainwater collection systems. There have been similar misunderstandings about rainwater collection laws in Colorado. Before 2009, Colorado had strict laws that basically made collecting rainwater illegal. But the state later introduced laws that made it legal to use some rooftop rainwater collection systems and to set up rainwater retention basins at new development sites. Other states that have rainwater collection laws on the books include Arizona, Illinois,
…show more content…
Therefore, property owners have a right to reasonable use of ground and surface water on their property. But there are no limits to what Nanny Law can enforce. The states or federal government want to create impoundments, such as arresting Gary Harrington for the senseless act of collecting water, or perhaps being arrested for irrigating crops with the water above a threshold level require permits are impractical. In the state of Colorado it became one step closer to making rainwater harvesting a legal option for more of its residents. Before the new law allowing rainwater collection was passed, it was illegal in Colorado to gather rainwater and snowmelt that fell from rooftops, patios or driveways into barrels. Also, rainwater harvesting occurs when storm water runoff is diverted from flowing to the ground and instead put to beneficial use by the rainwater harvester. However, in western parts of the U.S., unlike in the east coast, capturing rainwater is generally illegal due to the prior appropriation doctrine that governs water. Using gray water can increase soil moisture in a garden or even supply a home's water needs, getting one step closer to going off the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    What type of effect will the removal of the O’Shaughnessy Dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park have on the environment? The Raker Bill, which eventually became known as the “Raker Act”, authorized the city of San Francisco the right to build a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley as a reservoir. It took about ten years to build the O’Shaughnessy Dam and it was completed in 1923. According to the Hetch Hetchy Restoration Study, the dam supplies water for 2.4 million people and approximately 85% of San Francisco’s water.…

    • 1401 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In large managed river basins and water systems such as the Columbia, Missouri, the state and federal California reservoir systems, the Colorado River, the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint, and others, drought creates or exacerbates conflicts about who should get water. The most common conflicts pit older, established uses such as agriculture and navigation against newer uses such as recreation and water for growing municipal populations, and water for direct human use against water for ecosystems.…

    • 72 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eutrophication Case Study

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1. Planning for changes is difficult due to the natural fluctuation of the great lakes water levels but there are factors that are certain that the levels as well as the region are changing negatively due to climate change (Kahl & Stirratt, n.d.). The water levels of the Great Lakes have declined over the past decades (“Climate Change Indicators: Great Lakes Water Levels and Temperatures”, 2016). Climate change is a change in typical weather that lasts longer than usual (“Climate Change, Health, Environmental Justice”, n.d.). It typically comes along with the warming or cooling of the average temperature as well as extreme weather.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction In a recently released opinion, the Kansas Court of Appeals for the first time addressed the meaning of Kansas water law. The case of Garetson Brothers v. American Warrior, Inc., 51 Kan. App. 2d 370 (2015), concerns a groundwater dispute between a senior water user and a junior water user in southwest Kansas. After filing a complaint against the junior user, the senior user sought an injunction against the junior user to stop their use of the groundwater. The District Court granted the injunction and the Court of Appeals affirmed the injunction in the case.…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What would happen if California were to run out of water completely, just because the government did not do anything to stop it from happening? Farmers and regular citizens are drilling the ground in search of groundwater. Currently there are no laws restricting or monitoring the amount of groundwater we can use, and without these laws we could run out of water. In order to conserve and save water legislation needs create regulations to monitor and control both citizens and farmers use of groundwater. Due to a lack of regulations regarding groundwater farmers are drilling the ground and taking other people's water.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hernando De Soto Analysis

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Hernando de Soto stated that capital is like energy and that it is a dormant value. However, we know how to create energy like burning wood in stove produces energy in the form of heat to cook food, boil water, or warm a home. The same cannot be said with capital. We have a pretty good idea what it is, but we are not as good at turning capital into economic potential. De Soto also defines capital as the parallel life of an asset.…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Any person using the water cannot use more than the amount given. The act also states that you cannot sell all of your water to one neighbor or any water to a non-resident, and you must pay charges annually. It also states that the secretary of interior has full power of construction of the irrigation projects and can create new rules for a certain place that the act is in effect. Teddy Roosevelt passed the National Reclamation Act in 1902 which funded many irrigation projects and much…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This water conservation act would require citizens of Nevada to not only limit their water consumption to a certain amount of gallons per year, but would require them to recycle their water using purification via a state issued water hepa-filtration system. This would require funding, so a water tax should be put in place specifically to pay for these water recycling devices. Once all Nevadans had a state issued water filtration device, they would be required to have five gallons of water per person in their homes at all times, and would be subject to inspection by a state official once a year to ensure they have their required amount. Any citizen not in possession of at least five gallons of fresh water would be subject to a fine for…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Doug Kenney, a University of Colorado law professor, is the chair of the Colorado River Research Group, an independent group of 10 river and climate experts from regional universities. In an article by Brandon Loomis of the Arizona Republic, Kenney stated, “Cities will have to grow within their means, through conservation and by paying farmers to save and transfer water. When the river already falls short of supplying everyone who has a legal right to it, there's no sensible way of taking more from…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Did you know California is entering its sixth year of a bad drought . Currently in California we are having a drought , which is why we have to regulate groundwaters . Personally , I believe they should not regulate groundwater for many reasons . For example , limiting groundwater is interfering with people's income and people’s actions in their daily lives . To begin , about 95% of California is in a drought , which is why the state limits people’s water usage .…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Think of all of times it rains super hard, imagine it as gallons and gallons of water pouring from the sky, to just be wasted. “About 40% of the rain water gets evaporated, and about 10% runs off”, states the Blue Barrel Company. That is half of the rainwater that could have been used as a water source. Another thing that is concerning is, rainwater could fill up our drains, and when flooding happens it could become a disaster. “Collecting rainwater could prevent a lot of accidents from occurring.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the essay “the illusion of water abundance”, Cynthia Barnett Talks about the growing problem of water misuse in America, and the widespread effects it has on the water supply in America. Out of all of the forms of rhetoric used in this essay, Ethos seems to be the most common. Barnett makes numerous emotional appeals throughout the essay. The very first statement she makes is an emotional appeal to the middle and lowers classes against the frivolous uses of water by wealthy neighborhoods (338, Line 5).…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    that are the most polluted are all in California and are all in every category of pollution. California in general has the most polluted water in the whole United States. As of October 2014, California has put billions of contaminated water into the aquifers and the water that is used for drinking and farming is now contaminated. (Mike Gaworecki). In February of 2015, 9 of those water sites all have been dumped with wastewater and other pollutants that have been given to the citizens.…

    • 1266 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Southern California relies on other places water resources and groundwater to provide for the millions that live in the area. It is very hard to depend on rainfall because of the little amount due to the climate of the section. Since the water is imported to Southern California, the state has an aqueduct system set in place to allow water to flow from North to South. This system provides drinking water and generates an average of six thousand five hundred GWhs of hydroelectricity each year. Around seventy percent of the water in the structure is used in urban areas in the Southern California region.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. Hi my name is Taylor and I chose to study the serve water crisis happening in California. This water crisis has a start date of 2012 but in reality has been going on for much longer than that.…

    • 1382 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays