Can You Legally Collect Rain Water In Montana?

Question.

Are you a Montanan that collects rain water off of your house or building into a cistern like a wood barrel, or an actual storage tank?

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During the wet seasons, rain water is an excellent commodity to harness for those long, hot summer months where water can be scarce on a dry property. It's soft so it does not damage things it drips and rolls off of, and in most cases is generally safe to drink.

There were many people over the years that told me that collecting water is against the law and one can be fined if caught with systems on properties.

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Well, in Montana it is legal to operate and maintain water harvesting systems in Montana.

In fact, according to todayshomeowner.com where they have a table showing all the states involving the harvest of rain water, it states that Montana does not have any regulations with it and the state encourages the collection of rain water.

There are other states like Texas, that have regulations and encourage harvest, as well as Arizona that have regulations and do not encourage harvesting.

Doing some research, I found that there is a proper way to collect water complete with plans for proper filtering and storage put together by Montana State University. It can be found at rainwater.com on a PDF. 

There may be rules involving the HOA in certain areas ruling against having rainwater harvesting systems in place on your property, so make sure to check the rules if you live within HOA guidlines. The Red Lodge city website has a pretty good FAQ section on rain gathering that you can check out as well.

Water harvesting can be a great way to conserve and reuse water, it's great that Montana agrees. Have fun gathering that rain!