Seattlest: Sorry, That Rain Belongs to the State

abbey

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:33:09 -0800

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.

rjh

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:04:27 -0800

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.

beef

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:55:45 -0800

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.

Unknown user

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:42:28 -0800

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.