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"The Rhythm of the Falling Rain by Grundlepuck
This story reminds us of a line from The Beatles' "Taxman". The fact that it's illegal to collect too much rain that falls on your property because of state water laws seems just as ridiculous as the idea of the government taxing your feet to walk. But these are strange times, friends, because in Washington, the rain that falls is property of the state and up to them to regulate.
Despite this being state law, there seem to be no specifics as to the amount of water one has to collect to be in violation. While it is unlikely that you'd face consequences of your rain-stealing if you have a couple barrels in your backyard to collect rainwater...what about all the new green buildings that have gone around town recently? (With the blessing and encouragement of the state and local governments.) Are green garden roofs meant to collect water illegal? What about cisterns used to collect rainwater, which are used for sustainable toilets or water supplies for a garden? In a time of worldwide environmental crisis, shouldn't we be encouraging people to utilize resources like rain water, rather than penalizing them?
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Not sure if you read the whole article, but pretty much all these concerns were brought up there. The city of Seattle has a blanket permit so you can build all the green roofs and set up all the cisterns you want here. It's much trickier in the drier parts of the state where a major rainfall collection effort potentially could harm wildlife/reservoir levels/whatever downstream. Water rights are always bizzare.
That's the case in most of the states throughout the western US. A good portion of the water that falls in the state has already been allocated to people/cities/etc. By individuals keeping it, you would be impairing their water rights.
Without these rules, you would be penalizing people who have already allocated these resources for other legislated uses.
Seriously, did you even read the story? Just about every question you raised is addressed. Nobody is being cited for collecting a barrel of water or two on their property; Seattle has a permit (as Unknown user points out); and there can be legitimate concerns if someone were to divert large amounts of water for their own use -- since the government is tasked with providing water.
What a silly post.
I did actually read the entire story -- and while I agree that the personal rain barrels won't get anyone fined, which I don't believe I implied-- I do think that some questions were left unanswered. So I asked them.