[ca-gw] FW: Colorado Rainwater Harvesting

Sat Mar 28 08:37:03 PDT 2009

As a footnote to Pavlos’ thoughtful words, there is some distinction in law between first right use of water and wastewater treatment, which is essentially what the Uniform Plumbing Code is talking about with their greywater “irrigation/disposal” code.

Amen to So Cal water users needing to improve their water use habits…

From: ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org [mailto:ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org] On Behalf Of Pavlos Stavropoulos
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 7:04 AM
To: Penelope Livingston
Cc: ca-standard at graywater.org
Subject: Re: [ca-gw] FW: Colorado Rainwater Harvesting

Hi everyone,

My name is Pavlos, new to this list. I live in Colorado (Upper South Platte River Watershed), am active on a variety of water issues here and I just completed OAEC's excellent 2-week permaculture class. Thanks Brock for posting this article.

Colorado does indeed have a very complex and restrictive water law system. One of the reasons why that is the case is the Colorado is upstream from many other places. Colorado is a party to some 23 different interstate water compacts, more than any other state. Two thirds of the water that originate in CO (which ultimately is precipitation) belong to another state or to Mexico. As such water use is highly controlled and most basins are overappropriated.

I have been told from two different water officials that rainwater is owned by the state but I am not sure if that is due to legislation or case law. I will try to find out and pass the information along. It does baffle me on how anyone can claim to own the rain (or water in general) but given that Shell (shale oil exploration) and Nestle (bottled water) are some of the largest and most aggressive purchasers of water rights in Colorado, having water owned by the State is not the worst possible scenario.

Nevertheless, there are some positive developments going on. Colorado SB 09-080 just passed and it allows some rural residences (those who have or are eligible for exempt wells, the kind that Bill Wilson referred to) to harvest precipitation (it's more snow than rain here) with some restrictions. There is a bit of a bureaucratic process you have to go through but it opens the door.

HB 1129 (which passed the House and I think is in the Senate Appropriations Committee at the moment) will allow for 10 pilot projects in the state to institute precipitation harvesting with very detailed and active monitoring so that data can be collected to evaluate the impact of precipitation collection to senior and downstream water rights. As far as I can tell, these will be large-scale new developments and my concern is that this bill could delay any other movements forward ("we have to wait for the results from the pilot projects before doing anything else") and that when the data shows what we already know, precipitation harvesting may only be permitted in large scale, engineered, highly monitored systems. We will see.

By the way, on the graywater front (since that is the subject of the list) there is also a little bit of movement but far behind rainwater. Colorado State University is doing a graywater study to look at the impact on water rights. Graywater usage in Colorado, in addition to the usual "health concerns," is also often considered an illegal diversion since by Colorado water law you only have first use of the water that you have rights to, and not reuse rights (which belong to those downstream). We will see what comes out of that.

Well, that's a brief summary of the Colorado water legal situation as I understand it (but I should state that I am not an attorney and I don't even play one on TV)! In the meanwhile, those of you who are downstream of Colorado (anyone from LA on this list?), keep working on wiser use of your water and that will only help us as well.

In solidarity,

pavlos

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 8:49 AM, Penelope Livingston <penny at regenerativedesign.org> wrote:

Yes, How does one confirm the information about Colorado? I've been hearing this for years, mainly from the people who live there.
I have also heard from a Washington state staffer that the state of Washington owns the rain. They have not outlawed roofwater or rainwater harvesting as far as I know. I'm not sure how one can decide it "owns" the rain. In this case it may be keeping a multi-national corporation from deciding they own it....

Penny

On Mar 25, 2009, at 9:34 PM, Jon Bauer wrote:

Colorado is the only state in the union where the State owns the rainwater before it even lands.  
I have heard that some counties in california have similar laws, though I dont know how they can.  This is unconfirmed.

jon

  _____  

From: stevebilson at rewater.com
To: JJOHNSO2 at sonoma-county.org; ca-standard at graywater.org
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:27:12 -0700
Subject: Re: [ca-gw] FW: Colorado Rainwater Harvesting

California law is different.  It allows a person to keep their rainwater.  In many coastal jurisdictions, new building owners are now required to capture it and to either let it percolate or for reuse.  ReWater is selling systems that reuse it for irrigation.  Usually that water is the supplemental water for our greywater irrigation systems.

From: ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org [mailto:ca-standard-bounces at graywater.org] On Behalf Of James Johnson
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 7:52 AM
To: 'ca-standard at graywater.org'
Subject: [ca-gw] FW: Colorado Rainwater Harvesting

Good story in the LA Times on Rainwater Harvesting. Thanks to Matt Gorman for sharing this.

From: Matthew Gorman [mailto:MGorman at agclawfirm.com] 
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 4:24 PM
To: James Johnson
Subject: Colorado Rainwater Harvesting

Hi, James -- I came across this article and thought it might be of interest in your greywater work with the county.  It's not clear how California law will address this issue as harvesting increases ... you have probably heard stories (as have I) that it has gone either way.

Thanks

Matt

Matthew Gorman

Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin

600 Bicentennial Way, Suite 300

Santa Rosa, CA  95403

tel 707.542.4833  |  fax 707.542.4839

www.agclawfirm.com

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