Replies

Yes, but it seems to me, that catching a few barrels of water from the roof to allow for growing a garden ought to be ok in those regulations.

We live on a hill in a subdivision where everyone has their own well. The lots are half acre. However, the underlying water source is the same for all. Whatever we use impacts the neighbors and vice versa, as the water level goes down for all. We have never watered our lawn. It either grows, or gets replaced with something else.

We do catch rainwater off the roof to get enough to water the garden through the dry season, but we have never watered our lawn. We haven’t used the water to wash the vehicles. We don’t run a bunch of water down the sink. We have used grey water at times on various plants such as rosa rugosa, roses, etc. ie try to conserve the water.

We have had over the years some of the neighbors wells go dry, and we provided water to them-hubby had asked for extra depth when our well was dug.

We did have some very dry/drought times. I recall that our next door neighbor was outside using his hose to clean out the leaves from the gutters.

I walked over and asked him if he knew that some people’s wells had gone dry in the past. I also asked if he would like to borrow the leaf blower. He got the hint and finished the job without the water.

IIRC the man in OR who was fined or whatever for collecting runoff water was collecting it in large dams/cisterns or something like that, and his property was fairly decent sized, part of watershed for a local stream. I remember reading the volume he was collecting. In areas that don’t have water rights, then it doesn’t matter, or where it rains in the summer. Here it usually doesn’t rain from the end of April or beginning of May to mid Sept to October, in a very late year, early November.

In former days, people would kill each other over water rights.

One of the reasons people have gotten so angry about mj growers is they suck water illegally from streams and creeks and also suck so much water from wells that it affected the groundwater in some places. Areas that are zoned rural residential can’t be used for commericial ag and that’s one of the reasons - water rights.

***We do catch rainwater off the roof to get enough to water the garden through the dry season, but we have never watered our lawn***

Here are some ideas perhaps you have not pursued:
Atmospheric water generator
Air well (condenser)
Creating Drinking Water From Air
Air Wells, Fog Fences & Dew Ponds, Methods for Recovery of Atmospheric Humidity.
Shades of Tatooine! :^)