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I hope my weather related comments did not suggest complaining on my part. I love Colorado and its weather patterns. My comments were purely intended to offer another reality of weather and regulations. Jim

fjimp wrote:When we moved back to Colorado we were informed rain barrels are not allowed here. It seems the state owns all the water and it is illegal to slow or stop the flow of their water from ones property. However if their water damages your property as it crosses it the state considers that an act of God and refuses to accept any responsibility for damage which is caused by their water. Go figure.

Wow! That just seems....well...er.....STUPID, for lack of a better term. It intrigues me that the state of Colorado would frown on water conservation of this type. IMHO, who ever came up with the idea that the clouds that floated over the state of Colorado bringing rain suddenly belonged to them more so than anyone else definitely had a screw loose.

tgamel wrote:Wow! That just seems....well...er.....STUPID, for lack of a better term. It intrigues me that the state of Colorado would frown on water conservation of this type. IMHO, who ever came up with the idea that the clouds that floated over the state of Colorado bringing rain suddenly belonged to them more so than anyone else definitely had a screw loose.

Looking at the lush green in your avatar, I conclude that you live somewhere where rainfall is not in shortage. Living in drought prone country, I appreciate water conservation BIG TIME. If the Colorado ever goes dry, we are in big trouble. However, a rain barrel or two should not be a threat to our environment. This is the first time I have heard of rain barrel prohibition.

I lived in Richardson, Plano and Dallas. As I remember, you don't really need rain barrels most of the time..

fjimp wrote:When we moved back to Colorado we were informed rain barrels are not allowed here. It seems the state owns all the water and it is illegal to slow or stop the flow of their water from ones property. However if their water damages your property as it crosses it the state considers that an act of God and refuses to accept any responsibility for damage which is caused by their water. Go figure.

Check this article out....not sure of accuracy(being from New York)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29rain.html

Interesting article as I read it filled with maybe and perhaps some day. The rain barrel ban is still a reality for most of Colorado. Jim

dusty wrote:Looking at the lush green in your avatar, I conclude that you live somewhere where rainfall is not in shortage. Living in drought prone country, I appreciate water conservation BIG TIME. If the Colorado ever goes dry, we are in big trouble. However, a rain barrel or two should not be a threat to our environment. This is the first time I have heard of rain barrel prohibition.

I lived in Richardson, Plano and Dallas. As I remember, you don't really need rain barrels most of the time..

We are only about an hour east of Dallas, have lived in Plano, Richardson, and Dallas myself for more than 15 years before moving back to the country 6 years ago. Currently we have two wells on our property one for drinking (deep well) and one for watering the garden (shallow well). Texas has been under a pretty good drought for the last few years with water rationing in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, but being in the country that does not affect us, but wells have been known to run dry. Regardless, we do not water our lawn, just the garden to grow veg, and the flower bed to keep the better half's flowers pretty. Unfortunately, we lost three large oak trees (each more than a 100 years old) on our property last summer due to the drought (I should have watered them, but I did not). If I had had the space and the ability I would have liked to have kept some of the wood to play with. We still have one more tree that needs to be cut down, maybe I can harvest something useful from it this winter.

That picture was taken at a park in downtown Fredricksburg, TX in the Hill Country during the spring of 2010 so the city kept it nice and pretty for all the tourists.

That is ludacris (storm water is the property of the state). I can understand water in streams and ditches though. Here in Maryland you can use water that flows in streams and ditches to a point. However, it is illegal to impede or inhibit stream flow to where it takes away the water rights from others who might also use that resource (which also includes the Chesapeake Bay). At least not with out all kinds of water use permits and an environmental impact study/statement anyway. The only thing we have here for requirements on rain barrels is that they need to be enclosed to keep mosquitos from reproducing. We've had a lot of problems around this part of the country with some type of (I can't recall the exact type off the top of my head) of avian influenza that was transmitted by mosquitos. Just a couple of years ago we had public works crews going around and spraying insecticide throughout suburban neighborhoods to control this epidemic.