the Trash vitae

Trash is the editor-in-chief of an independent Colorado micro-publisher/ design studio. I dabble in digital photography, the lost art of film image making, and guerilla digital video. DrMAC Studios specializes in books and videos on self-reliance, gardening, dumpster diving, urban foraging and living off the excesses of others.
This blog documents my daily experiences with the rest of the world

Thursday, June 12, 2008

gather rainwater and snow.. GO TO JAIL

Unbelievable but true. IN this Depression era economy it is apprently illegal to set up a rainbarrel to collect rainwater and snow melt from your roof. Apparently the water that falls on your roof is the property of the stateof CO. How  did I find this out? A cohort of mine and I were talking about my primitive means of gathering rain water for irrigation of my small container veggie/ her garden. He like my system so well that he said why dont we sell the plans that I developed and  attempt to sell them to locals for $1. I did.
Within minutes a woman came back and informed me that rain water collection was illegal in CO. What BS I thought so I researched it further. Apparently due to semantics she  is right.  
Will I take mine down and disassemble  it?
When HELL freezes over. My water is returned to the soil and the water  tables and aquiferand wherever the hell else it goes  after it makes a pitstop  in my 'maters and Zuchs and the other assorted growing goodies.


4 comments:

Trashdigger said...

it may be illegal but I have 4-5 people already sending me money for the plans

Unknown said...

That's rediculous!
I would like a rainbarrel one day...when I have a roof of my own to collect off of and a garden to water. It's really neat that you designed your own system.

Trashdigger said...

Wendy,
It doesnt just work off of the roof. You can collect rain water in buckets placed on your patio. Even putting a bucket outside when it rains will help gather water. I keep several of the barrels open during snows and collect the moisture there. think different and creative..

Every drop helps

Trashdigger said...

Apparently groovygreen.com got a hold of this and it is being discussed around their site.
http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=3135