Saving Rain

There is this article in today's Seattle PI that mentions an archaic Washington State water law. Click here to read the article.

I decided to do some research- what is this law exactly?

RCW 90.46.130 Impairment of water rights downstream from freshwater discharge points.

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, facilities that reclaim water under this chapter shall not impair any existing water right downstream from any freshwater discharge points of such facilities unless compensation or mitigation for such impairment is agreed to by the holder of the affected water right.

(2) Agricultural water use of agricultural industrial process water and use of industrial reuse water under this chapter shall not impair existing water rights within the water source that is the source of supply for the agricultural processing plant or the industrial processing and, if the water source is surface water, the existing water rights are downstream from the agricultural processing plant's discharge points existing on July 22, 2001, or from the industrial processing's discharge points existing on June 13, 2002.

Washington Department of Ecology established the Reclaimed Water And Water Rights Impairment Advisory Committee to assist the agency in examining water right issues and finding appropriate solutions. The Department of Ecology has given themselves to December 31, 2010 to develop and adopt new rules based upon suggestions from the advisory committee.

As a homeowner- I have been looking at collection rain water in containers larger than my 55 - gallon rain barrel and would like to install a cistern. I do not know for sure, but there seems to be a City of Seattle pilot program currently in place called Seattle RainCatcher Pilot.

Seattle Public Utilities Rain water harvesting.