Owning Rain?

[Guest guest]

Lest you wake up on this fine summer morning thinking all is right with the world, government has only our best interests at heart, and yada, yada, yada, I feel compelled to point out that in Washington State - perhaps one of the best know wet spots in the Universe, state officials are busily making up rules to govern the collection of rainwater.

 

OLYMPIA – To clarify regulations governing the collection and use of rainwater, Ecology is seeking the public’s help in drafting a statewide rainwater rule.

Three open house sessions for education and public discussion about collecting rainwater for beneficial use are scheduled this month in Everett, Lacey and Wenatchee. Ecology doesn’t require homeowners to obtain water right permits to collect and store small amounts of rainwater. The new rule for the first time would define how much rainwater can be collected and used before a permit is required. The rule isn’t intended to regulate storage and release of rainwater when no “beneficial use” will be made of the water. Under state law, beneficial uses include recreation, irrigation, residential water supplies and power generation. Call me a riparian radical, if you will, but to my way of thinking, if rainwater falls on my property, then it's my rainwater to do with as I will. Simple as that.