Don't drink the water: the politics of rain.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Citings

IF YOU LIVE in Colorado, you should look around to make sure no one is watching before you stick your tongue out to catch those first drops of spring rain. Rainwater in Colorado isn't yours for the tasting, even water that falls on your property. That makes rain barrels, the large containers conservationists and gardeners use to collect precipitation for use in watering plants, illegal. And don't think about being eco-friendly by using your excess laundry water to irrigate your garden; secondary use of water is illegal too.

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Like many Western states, Colorado employs a complicated system of water use known as prior allocation, which severs water rights from other property rights. The system preserves an 80-year-old compact Colorado signed with other Western states (as well as a separate federal pact with Mexico) divvying up runoff from the Colorado River. It means you can buy a parcel of land in Colorado, but the right to any precipitation that falls on that land likely belongs to someone two houses over, two counties over, or even in another state. It might also belong to a state or local government, but it probably doesn't belong to you.

Under...