Wouldn’t it be nice to collect the rain and be able to water your garden right here in Colorado? Oddly enough, you cannot collect rain water on your property and we are the only state in the nation that bans doing so. However, that is hopefully about to change!

Harrisburg Rain Barrel Coalition Facebook
Harrisburg Rain Barrel Coalition Facebook
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Today the Colorado House passed House Bill 1005, by a 61-3 vote dropping the ban. If and when the House Bill does become law, residents of houses or condo complexes will be able to use two 55 gallon barrels to collect rainwater on their property. The water that would be collected can only be used in an outdoor setting. In other words, my peppers in my garden will be grown with rain water, saving me some cash in the summer by using what nature provided me.

Sean Heavey / Barcroft Media / Getty Images
Sean Heavey / Barcroft Media / Getty Images
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In a quote from the Greeley Tribune, Republican state Representative J. Paul Brown from Ignacio said “Property rights are important. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution establish property rights, and waters rights are a property right.”
Let’s not throw our rain barrels in the air cheering just yet. Last year, a similar bill went through legislature last year. The bill passed in the house, but floundered in the Senate. The reasoning behind the rain barrel ban is that the water collected on your property is taking water out of the rivers, streams and lakes, harming users who have already paid for the water.
In my uneducated opinion on the matter is this ban is somewhat idiotic and overbearing. If I was able to have a rain barrel on my property, the rain collected more than likely won’t be heading into any body of water nearby as it would be absorbed by the patch of dirt in my backyard. So I say let the citizens have a barrel to water their gardens. In the end, the rain did fall on MY property and I already pay property taxes.

 

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