Thanks to archaic and complicated water use laws that date in varying degrees to the frontier days, it's currently illegal in Colorado to collect rainwater that falls on your own property. The reasoning is that this water could theoretically end up in a river or aquifer claimed by someone else — typically a large agricultural business.
It's an approach to water that increasingly doesn't make sense given drought conditions and modern understandings of property rights. So this week, Colorado's House of Representatives approved a bill which, if it becomes law, will allow Coloradoans to collect up to 100 gallons of rainwater at a time, enough to cover about one day's worth of household water use.
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