Comments on: Colorado relaxes water rights law to allow rain barrels

By: Sharon O'Hara

Sharon O'Hara — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:36:24 +0000

Based on Ken Slattery’s comments:

If a property owner sold a home and well generating 60 g but retained the adjoining property and the right to tap into the well for that adjoining property use – will it not be allowed?
Sharon O’Hara

By: cdunagan

cdunagan — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:55:25 +0000

As I understand it, Washington’s law already makes it illegal to collect rainwater without a water right. Everyone understands that the law is a problem. As far as I know, it has never been enforced.

Fixing the law is a goal of Ecology officials, but it’s not likely to happen until the economy gets growing again.

A letter published in The News Tribute in Tacoma and a response by Ecology’s Ken Slattery (both on Ecology’s Web site) may clarify Ecology’s position (PDF 16 kb).

By: Sharon O'Hara

Sharon O'Hara — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:39:07 +0000

Marrowstone Island folks – the old timers, anyway – were water conservatives from necessity. Most were innovative using rain water, gray water and one homeowner turned the basement into a cistern – they did well with very little water.

Some folks I know in Jefferson County live on a mountain not served by a water supply. In addition to collecting rainwater, they did and do still haul water home to store in tanks…and watered livestock and pets.

How expensive can it be to have an efficient rain collection watering system? The couple I mentioned had very little money and none to spare.
Sharon O’Hara

Not allowing homeowners to collect rainwater off their own roof for their own use is government control to the extreme..so it seems to me.

By: jim5930

jim5930 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:49:02 +0000

Collect rain water from your roof and reduce the storm water that creates damage to our roads and streams. Maybe you would even empty your collected rain water a few days before a big rain storm, if you were told about it by the weatherman.

Use the collect rain water for your garden during the summer to reduce your high water load on the public water system. Maybe, you would release most or all of your water before November when our rain ready starts to come down and some of this water will soak into the ground and feed the creek in the summer and early fall when it needs little extra water.

This all seems to be common sense to me. The only real problem is the up front cost for each house to collect rain water.

If the government could see rain collection the way I do, maybe they could lower the impact fee for a new house or a group of houses, which cost more due to the rain collect and use system but are more friendly to the environment.

By: Tom Rosendale

Tom Rosendale — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:33:06 +0000

“Harvesting” rain water. What a concept. If the State Department of Ecology claims it is their rain water and can control us harvesting what falls on our property, it seems more than reasonable that we can sue them when their rain water damages our property.

Their next step will be to tax us for the air we breathe in and charge us for the CO2 we breathe out into the “State’s” atmosphere.

Soon our prayers of thanksgiving won’t be to the Lord, they will be to the Department of Ecology which has taken over what is given and what gets ‘taketh’ away. The Dept. of Ecology doesn’t just act like it’s God. It now believes it is God.

By: Kathryn Simpson

Kathryn Simpson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:21:14 +0000

This makes me want to run right out and buy a few large rainbarrels just to see if I end up on the rain police radar.

Have we gotten so mired up in needing a regulation for everything that the average suburbanite has to worry about putting a barrel in their yard or (heaven forbid!) in line with their roof drainspout?

Regards,
Kathryn Simpson

By: Mars

Mars — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:00:33 +0000

The idea that “downstream” people have “rights” to the rain that falls on my property is insulting to my sense of logic and fairness. I say to them, “the hell with you”. I will take what I want and use it as I see fit. Stop me if you can.

By: Diane Fish

Diane Fish — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:21:44 +0000

DOE perplexes me. They are unable to clear the massive backlog of water rights applications citing a lack of staff time to accomplish the task – yet they are able to devote considerable resources to a variety of other projects. One of their efforts up in Jefferson County is getting a decidedly hostile reception http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20090628/news/306289980 and one can see why. A represenative from DOE spoke at the last KCAA meeting and it was clear to me that despite their “friendly” public face, their policies seek to limit access to all water as much as possible. Why don’t they come clean with the citizens of WA and admit that they are dragging their feet on processing water rights applications and coming up with a workable water harvest policy because it serves their purposes to limit citizen access to water.