Site search
sponsored by
News
Opinion
There are a couple of things that we Coloradans don’t own. We don’t own the water that falls out of the sky, and we don’t own our views. I’m going to complain about the lack of ownership of both.
I’ve always lived in the West and Southwest, so I’ve never lived where water wasn’t precious. I grew up in the new suburbs of post-war Tucson, and we all had lawns and new cars. There’s not much water in the deserts of Arizona, and I remember warnings that we’d use up the groundwater by watering those lawns and washing those cars. Water conservation efforts are part of my desert-DNA. It’s a crime to waste water.
As a gardener, I’m interested in controlling water usage so that I get the most out of my usage. I live in one of those old pre-gutter houses with concrete skirting the house. Water pours off several corners of the house when it rains, and it all runs wherever it wants to, rather than where I would like it to go. A rain barrel would be a great way to capture, and redirect, the water that the rains send along. I could also save on my water bill.
But I can’t use a rain barrel in Colorado because it’s against the law to capture rain water that falls on your house. Every drop of water that falls in Colorado already belongs to the state. Capturing rain is considered theft. Theft from agriculture, theft from water utilities and theft from municipalities. If you catch rain in a glass and drink it, you’re committing a crime.
Water law says that the state needs every bit of rain that falls in the state, and that only the state can determine the best use of the water. The best use of the water is that it becomes groundwater, which the state then draws on to provide water for the things that it prioritizes. Given the scarcity of water in Colorado, it’s hard to argue with that logic — one for all, and all for one.
Except that when people capture water in a rain barrel, they DO return the water to the water table. They just return it in an organized, and more productive, manner. Sometimes, they even save money by doing that, because they aren’t having to use municipal water services to water their veggies, trees, shrubs or flowers. At that point, the criminalization of water capturing becomes less about logic and more about greed — somebody doesn’t want to lose money when people use “free” water.
This drives me crazy when I watch rainfall flow into completely useless and even counter-productive places around my house. I think I should be able to capture as much as I can use, and not be considered a bad person, or a criminal, for doing that. Maybe there could be regulation of water capture — some criteria established for things like safety, mosquito prevention or storage abuse — maybe only so many rain barrels per square foot of roof. I want to be a law-abiding citizen, but I also want to be a water-wise user. Current law makes me choose between the two. Any law that criminalizes ordinary behavior — and in a drought state, conserving water is ordinary behavior — is a stupid law.
I rent my current house, so I don’t have control over the absence of gutters — it would take four rain barrels to make smart use of the places that water rushes off my roof. Most homes today have gutters and downspouts, but few downspouts do more than redirect water onto lawns. That’s better than nothing, but it’s a long way from smart. Rain barrels under downspouts allow intelligent and specific water use — hoses from rain barrels can water anything from vegetable gardens to trees.
If we were all using rain barrels, a whole industry of attachments and water-directing gadgets would be developed — we’d all have our own little irrigation systems! We’d save money, make smarter use of the water, and the water would STILL get back into the ground. I WANNA USE A RAIN BARREL!
OK — next week: Extreme Property Rights and Extreme Capitalism — how they’re robbing us of our views!
-----------------------------------------
Judith writes a “Bossy Gardener” column every Friday in the Grand Junction Free Press Real Estate Showplace. She also writes a “View From The Driver’s Seat” column each Wednesday in the FP.
I’ve always lived in the West and Southwest, so I’ve never lived where water wasn’t precious. I grew up in the new suburbs of post-war Tucson, and we all had lawns and new cars. There’s not much water in the deserts of Arizona, and I remember warnings that we’d use up the groundwater by watering those lawns and washing those cars. Water conservation efforts are part of my desert-DNA. It’s a crime to waste water.
As a gardener, I’m interested in controlling water usage so that I get the most out of my usage. I live in one of those old pre-gutter houses with concrete skirting the house. Water pours off several corners of the house when it rains, and it all runs wherever it wants to, rather than where I would like it to go. A rain barrel would be a great way to capture, and redirect, the water that the rains send along. I could also save on my water bill.
But I can’t use a rain barrel in Colorado because it’s against the law to capture rain water that falls on your house. Every drop of water that falls in Colorado already belongs to the state. Capturing rain is considered theft. Theft from agriculture, theft from water utilities and theft from municipalities. If you catch rain in a glass and drink it, you’re committing a crime.
Water law says that the state needs every bit of rain that falls in the state, and that only the state can determine the best use of the water. The best use of the water is that it becomes groundwater, which the state then draws on to provide water for the things that it prioritizes. Given the scarcity of water in Colorado, it’s hard to argue with that logic — one for all, and all for one.
Except that when people capture water in a rain barrel, they DO return the water to the water table. They just return it in an organized, and more productive, manner. Sometimes, they even save money by doing that, because they aren’t having to use municipal water services to water their veggies, trees, shrubs or flowers. At that point, the criminalization of water capturing becomes less about logic and more about greed — somebody doesn’t want to lose money when people use “free” water.
This drives me crazy when I watch rainfall flow into completely useless and even counter-productive places around my house. I think I should be able to capture as much as I can use, and not be considered a bad person, or a criminal, for doing that. Maybe there could be regulation of water capture — some criteria established for things like safety, mosquito prevention or storage abuse — maybe only so many rain barrels per square foot of roof. I want to be a law-abiding citizen, but I also want to be a water-wise user. Current law makes me choose between the two. Any law that criminalizes ordinary behavior — and in a drought state, conserving water is ordinary behavior — is a stupid law.
I rent my current house, so I don’t have control over the absence of gutters — it would take four rain barrels to make smart use of the places that water rushes off my roof. Most homes today have gutters and downspouts, but few downspouts do more than redirect water onto lawns. That’s better than nothing, but it’s a long way from smart. Rain barrels under downspouts allow intelligent and specific water use — hoses from rain barrels can water anything from vegetable gardens to trees.
If we were all using rain barrels, a whole industry of attachments and water-directing gadgets would be developed — we’d all have our own little irrigation systems! We’d save money, make smarter use of the water, and the water would STILL get back into the ground. I WANNA USE A RAIN BARREL!
OK — next week: Extreme Property Rights and Extreme Capitalism — how they’re robbing us of our views!
-----------------------------------------
Judith writes a “Bossy Gardener” column every Friday in the Grand Junction Free Press Real Estate Showplace. She also writes a “View From The Driver’s Seat” column each Wednesday in the FP.
