Water rights are generally kind of crazy in all the western states, just look at Colorado's long-time ban on rainwater collection barrels, only slightly relaxed

Water rights are generally kind of crazy in all the western states, just look at Colorado's long-time ban on rainwater collection barrels, only slightly relaxed in 2016: > "Under House Bill 1005, rain barrels can only be installed at single-family households and multi-family households with four or fewer units. A maximum of two rain barrels can be used at each household and the combined storage of the two rain barrels cannot exceed 110 gallons. Rain barrels can only be used to capture rainwater from rooftop downspouts and the captured rainwater must be used to water outdoor lawns, plants and/or gardens on the same property from which the rainwater was captured. Rain barrel water cannot be used for drinking or other indoor water uses." Even there, look at the clauses - every gallon of water is fought over, it seems: > "The capture and use of rainwater using rain barrels does not constitute a water right," said Reagan Waskom, director of the Colorado Water Institute, part of CSU’s Office of Engagement. "HB 1005 includes language that could result in the State Engineer curtailing the use of individual rain barrels if a water-right holder can prove that those rain barrels have impacted their ability to receive the water that they are entitled to by virtue of their water right." As the major reservoirs on the Colorado continue their apparently inevitable decline to dead-pool stage, these pressures will only get more intense, and the long-term trend doesn't seem to be affected that much by periodic atmospheric river injections like this past winter's - see this recent article: https://www.newsweek.com/lake-mead-dead-pool-hoover-dam-ramifications-1781704 https://www.newsweek.com/lake-mead-dead-pool-hoover-dam-rami... No worries, recycled urine is an acceptable source of drinking water...