"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
"By capturing rainwater, some homeowners are breaking the law. This has
put city and state governments in an awkward position-smack in the middle
of competing water users and advocates, often from within their own
agencies, of conserving water to protect supplies."

http://www.popularmechanics.com/scie...h/4314447.html

Some say rainwater should follow its natural course instead of being
diverted by homeowners so that the homeowner's betters can allocate the
water based on need - or political pressure - to those more, um, worthy of
wetting.

It's for the children.

there's lots of water rights issues and laws in the southwest US. there's
all sorts of laws about what happens if you disturb the natural water course
to redirect water onto your neighbor's property; these are also written such
that you can't prevent natural watercourses from their track to NOT have
that water run onto neighboring property. if these laws weren't available,
then the colorado river would be diverted and massive parts of the southwest
would become uninhabitable, perhaps starting another water war.