There are few things in life that are truly free, but the weather normally is counted in that group. In the winter, that means shoveling the snow, in the summer that means free car washes when it rains. And if you’re enterprising enough, old Ma Nature can provide a fair bit of water for your home.

Unless, that is, you live in Colorado. Colorado has some pretty heavy regulations concerning water rights. And those rights are not based on need or proximity, but rather who came first. Access to that water then has a chronological waiting line. And a few court cases have established the roof as a legitimate tributary. This means that rain water on a roof is technically not the property of the home owner, but whomever has the local water rights.

And if you think this is one of those archaic laws that isn’t actually enforced, you would be wrong. A recent court rejected an appeal for a permit to collect water at the home of a resident. The fine for not removing collection barrels? $500 per day per barrel.

Thankfully, many local officials do indeed look away, and there is a bill in the state Senate to modernize the state’s water rights, but the bill is obviously receiving some measure of opposition by current rights holders.

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