It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado - NYTimes.com

It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado - NYTimes.com:

"DURANGO, Colo. — For the first time since territorial days, rain will be free for the catching here, as more and more thirsty states part ways with one of the most entrenched codes of the West.

Precipitation, every last drop or flake, was assigned ownership from the moment it fell in many Western states, making scofflaws of people who scooped rainfall from their own gutters. In some instances, the rights to that water were assigned a century or more ago. ..."

Anglers have been familiar with the morass of water laws in the western states for some time, as they deal with streams that run dry during the best months for fishing because upstream impoundments refuse to release even a minimal flow. Politics and economics clash with human and environmental needs to the point where silly laws, like the ones that were superseded by Colorado's recent action, made technical criminals of many landowners.