# Off-Topic Discussion > Extended Discussion >  >  Wait...so...collecting RAINWATER is ILLEGAL??

## Oneironaut Zero

Really? Apparently this has been going on for some time, but I had no idea. How does this work, exactly? I mean, who does the rain belong to, to tell anyone that it's illegal to collect what falls on your property? I understand that water might be an extremely valuable resource during a drought, but still....it's _rain_.  :Uhm: 

Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water

(Also, I know nothing about "Natural News," so if anybody knows that this story is false, please let me know.)

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## Carôusoul

Lol dem colonies man

dem colonies

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## Arra

What the... that's just ridiculous.  Why?  Stupid government.  It's so funny I almost enjoy the fact that it's a law, because the stupid people who came up with it can be laughed at.

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## Spenner

At this rate, soon we'll have to go out and buy government approved air :l

I'm curious to see how this will be enforced.

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## Oneiro

I don't know about the US, but it's been law in the UK since at least the 1970s. Never known it to be enforced for a water barrel, though. If you build a property in the UK with its own natural water supply you're still liable to pay water rates.

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## Marvo

Man, the UK and US sucks.

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## Alric

Just because a law passed doesn't mean its lawful. The true test is if it can stand up in court, and this obviously wouldn't.  It is unconstitutional, and no jury would ever convict someone for collecting rain water.

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## Xei

Do you think river water should be free for all also?

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## Original Poster

Yes...?

It's just not collectible while it's passing through public property. What if the government tol you you can't use a river running through your property because the water came from a public mountain, originally?

But I digress, I think the main idea we need to reverse is that just because the Government owns something that doesn't mean the people do. Contrarily, the government acts as a force to keep the people from owning things publicly and works as a funnel so everything falls into the hands of the elite.

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## Xei

> Yes...?
> 
> It's just not collectible while it's passing through private property. What if the government tol you you can't use a river running through your property because the water came from a public mountain, originally?



I can't tell what you mean, first you say you shouldn't collect it when it passes through private property, then you say the Government shouldn't tell you not to collect it when it passes through your private property?

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## ninja9578

They can't enforce it.  My aunt has a house high up in the Colorado rockies, there are no pipes out there, so when she's there they use collected rainwater.  The only way to enforce it would be to check, and in order to check, they would have to trespass.  The act of cop trespassing voids any evidence that they can gather by doing such (well it's supposed to anyway.)

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## Marvo

> Do you think river water should be free for all also?



Do you think carbondioxide gathered from the atmosphere through plants should be illegal? I'm pretty sure kitchen gardens are legal.

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## Original Poster

> I can't tell what you mean, first you say you shouldn't collect it when it passes through private property, then you say the Government shouldn't tell you not to collect it when it passes through your private property?



I fixed it.

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## Xei

> Do you think carbondioxide gathered from the atmosphere through plants should be illegal? I'm pretty sure kitchen gardens are legal.



According to the tacit logic here it follows that it's okay to put as much CO2 as you want back into the atmosphere, correct?





> I fixed it.



Okay, so if I own that stretch of the river I can take all of it and sell it to the people downstream?

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## Marvo

> According to the tacit logic here it follows that it's okay to put as much CO2 as you want back into the atmosphere, correct?



Not really, but CO2 and H2O are both materials that we gather from the atmosphere, generally for the same purposes. Our gardens get water and carbondioxide for the plants. Why is that okay, and gathering it in a barrel is not? That's what I don't understand. The difference between a plant containing water and a barrel containing water is subtle at best.

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## Original Poster

> According to the tacit logic here it follows that it's okay to put as much CO2 as you want back into the atmosphere, correct?
> 
> 
> Okay, so if I own that stretch of the river I can take all of it and sell it to the people downstream?



No. if you own a piece of land with a river on it, according to purely lassiez faire rules (and not actual legislation) you can do whatever you want to the water while it's passing through your property but before it flows in or after it flows out, you can't act upon it.

We have regulations in place to prevent people from harming the ecosystem by fucking with water that flows onto their property. But we don't prevent people from collecting the water that flows onto their property. Much the same way, can we prevent people from doing what they like with water that falls from above?

It's no longer an environmental issues if they're just collecting water that falls from the sky. It's a scarcity issue. Water is precious, it must be contained and price-tagged so the elite can get their fair share.

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## Xei

Perhaps you don't take your fair share. Perhaps your actions cause the deaths of people downstream. I'd like you to at least give an outline of why you can harvest as much CO2 as you like but not release it.





> No. if you own a piece of land with a river on it, according to purely lassiez faire rules (and not actual legislation) you can do whatever you want to the water while it's passing through your property but before it flows in or after it flows out, you can't act upon it.



You're appealing to laissez faire?

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## Original Poster

:Picard face palm: 

For christ's sake, stop assuming I support every idea I bring up for discussion. Four little letters will change your life, xei.

READ

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## Xei

I think that's the most posts you've ever managed to make before going off on an insulting tangent, well done!

You've misinterpreted me. I am not asking what the state of affairs is, and certainly nowhere did I ask what the state of affairs is under laissez faire, which is not a philosophy which the US state aspires to. I'm asking what your views are.

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## Marvo

> Perhaps you don't take your fair share. Perhaps your actions cause the deaths of people downstream. I'd like you to at least give an outline of why you can harvest as much CO2 as you like but not release it.



Because you are ruining the balance, if the the CO2 is coming from fossil fuels. But why can we gather H2O in plants, but not barrels?

edit: derp

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## Xei

I didn't say we can't collect CO2... there's no problem, it isn't scarce.

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## Original Poster

I'm giving you a logical account for how I would arrive at my viewpoint.

If you want to quick and dirty, I told you my viewpoint. The government wants to publicly control rainwater so they can leverage private control of drinking water because that would mean by extension that the banks privately control our drinking water. The elite faction that owns this government does not want such a precious resource like water being distributed freely around the country because that means less for them. All must be collected, contained and price-tagged to ensure the rich can buy what they need. Everything must be expropriated from the poor to maintain their poverty so they cannot live in more a sustainable fashion and crowd the rich. That's my viewpoint. It has nothing to do with intrinsic legal properties of water use. I brought up Laissez Faire to discuss what these properties might be, were I living in a country where the law is meant to deliver the greatest good.

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## ThePreserver

I think we should all just love eachother and take only the water we need, and share our excesses and stop being so mean.

Also, fuck those laws.  I'll use all the rain barrels I wish!  (Although usually our grasses and trees suck up a lot of the water that falls on the property.  'Da Gubment may have to confiscate our trees and wildlife until we pay for them to use it.)

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## LucidFlanders

This just in....breathing the air outside is illegal!

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## ThePreserver

> This just in....breathing the air outside is illegal!



*Gasp!*

Oh shit... I just broke the law.

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## LucidFlanders

> *Gasp!*
> 
> Oh shit... I just broke the law.



Me too, now the government is tracking us to shoot us.

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## ninja9578

> *Gasp!*
> 
> Oh shit... I just broke the law.



Stop gasping or I will call the cops for using our air.

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## ThePreserver

> Stop gasping or I will call the cops for using our air.



*claps excitedly* Someone got the joke!  You can never tell online...

I already paid for my air, thank you very much.  It was top dollar.

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## tommo

Don't think it was ever illegal here, but the government used tot ell everyone not to get tanks and use piped water because it is good for our economy.
Then we had a drought and they were telling everyone to get tanks and subsidising them lol

This is mighty fucked though.

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## mowglycdb

> We have regulations in place to prevent people *from harming the ecosystem by fucking with water that flows onto their property*. But we don't prevent people from collecting the water that flows onto their property. Much the same way, can we prevent people from doing what they like with water that falls from above?



Bottled water brought from other places is very harmfull to the ecosystem where they were taken from, that water doesn't come back, and it ends up drying the whole river. So... we have little water... mmm lets just take it away from other places and at the same time put a much higer price tag on it.

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