Raindrops Keep Messing With My Head

The NYT’s Jack Healy on Colorado’s unusual water laws and the battle over who owns raindrops: “When Jason Story bought an old soy sauce barrel to collect the rain dripping from his downspout, he figured he had found an environmentally friendly way to water his garden’s beets and spinach. But under the quirks of Western water rules, where raindrops are claimed even as they tumble from the sky, he became a water outlaw.”