charlie wrote:
"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.

So the chap who complained about his neighbor's gutter-water being diverted
to his property should bone up on New Mexico's Property & Conservation Code,
Article 32, Section 56, Paragraph (c)iii (or whatever's applicable in his
state)?