What's next, the air we breathe?
As a gardener, I'm interested in controlling water usage so that I get the most out of my usage. I live in one of those old pre-gutter houses with concrete skirting the house. Water pours off several corners of the house when it rains, and it all runs wherever it wants to, rather than where I would like it to go. A rain barrel would be a great way to capture, and redirect, the water that the rains send along. I could also save on my water bill.
But I can't use a rain barrel in Colorado because it's against the law to capture rain water that falls on your house. Every drop of water that falls in Colorado already belongs to the state. Capturing rain is considered theft. Theft from agriculture, theft from water utilities and theft from municipalities. If you catch rain in a glass and drink it, you're committing a crime.
Apropos of nothing (except that this article reminded me of it), several of my relatives in Kentucky had wells intead of running water. I've never tasted anything sweeter.