"Holstrom's violation is the fancifully painted 55-gallon buckets underneath the gutters of her farmhouse on a mesa 15 miles from the resort town of Telluride. The barrels catch rain and snowmelt, which Holstrom uses to irrigate the small vegetable garden she and her husband maintain. But according to the state of Colorado, the rain that falls on Holstrom's property is not hers to keep. It should be allowed to fall to the ground and flow unimpeded into surrounding creeks and streams, the law states, to become the property of farmers, ranchers, developers and water agencies that have bought the rights to those waterways." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet

I think they have a point - right up until you remember where that water will eventually end up. - Steven Perez from IM

I thought we here in So Cal owned all the water west of the Mississippi? - SteVe C

They'll have to pry those raindrops out of my cold dead hands :-) - Todd Hoff

Corporate interests also pulled that stunt in Bolivia if I understand correctly. Don't think it ended well for them. - Andrew C (✓)

I read this article this morning and laughed at the silliness of the LA Times. We gardening and environmental bloggers have been writing about Colorado's stupid rainwater rules for years. They didn't even bother to contact many people who have been working on getting these rules laxed. One of my friends got fined for her 2 45-gallon rainwater barrels. She went to court and got the right to use one of them on her property. - Anika

So who owns the air that people in Colorado breath - has that been sold too? - Andy Davies

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ... don't give them any ideas! - Steven Perez from IM