Which water, for which use, under which health, technical and local requirements?
Define the source and intended use before selecting a system. Keep rainwater, graywater and safe piped drinking water distinct, verify the applicable authority and plan maintenance. For Colorado, read the enacted 2026 graywater framework alongside current local and technical requirements; older agency wording alone is insufficient.
Evidence checked October 16, 2026. Version 1.0. Desk review; no hands-on testing.
What this guide helps you do
For early assessment of household collection/reuse proposals and the questions a shared project must answer. Colorado is an explicitly limited legal example, not a nationwide rule. No design, property entitlement, potable use, local approval or complete current statutory/rule audit is supplied.
Start with a source-and-use description
Write whether the proposed water is roof runoff, used shower/laundry water, another wastewater stream or treated piped supply. Name the intended use and likely human contact, location and quantity. Do not combine these categories into a generic recycled-water promise. Identify the property owner, operator and any supplier or shared-system responsibility. A neighborhood project needs an accountable custodian and clear records just as a household does. This guide does not classify or approve a community system; use the description to ask the relevant health, building and water authorities the right questions.
Treat collected rain as a source that needs assessment
CDC explains that rain can acquire germs and chemicals from air, roofs, gutters, piping and storage. It recommends keeping collected rainwater out of safe piped water and matching the water quality to its intended use. Screens, first-flush devices and maintenance can improve collection, but do not establish drinking-water safety. Ask the health program about appropriate uses, testing and treatment. Its advice favors public-system or bottled water for higher-exposure uses where available. No catchment, sample or treatment performance was tested in this review. Source: CDC rainwater health assessment.
Check water rights and supply restrictions separately
Colorado DWR explains that graywater remains subject to water-rights requirements, well-permit conditions and supplier restrictions. Describe the actual property and proposed use when seeking guidance. Its collection page is a navigator containing older linked documents and a pilot-project passage referring to a scheduled July 2026 repeal; this guide does not rely on that passage as continuing authority. It also does not turn a rainwater proposal into permission: the official HB25-1106 record marks that proposal Lost. Verify current enacted law and property-specific conditions before choosing equipment. Source: Colorado water-rights and collection navigator.
Recognize the change in the Colorado framework
The official HB24-1362 record identifies the enacted act and its January 1, 2026 effective date. It changes the older universal local opt-in approach to authorization subject to rule compliance and local prohibitions. The signed act’s new section includes cross-connection/reporting safeguards and limits indoor graywater treatment to new construction unless a local ordinance provides otherwise. Those limits matter to an existing-home proposal. Read the signed text and verify current codification, later amendments and local restrictions; the act’s general framework is not an individual installation approval. Source: Colorado HB24-1362 enacted graywater framework.
Use technical portals with their dates and limits
The CDPHE Regulation 86 portal links technical materials, plumbing-code and water-rights information, but its overview still describes the older opt-in framework. That eligibility statement is marked Needs update in the registry and excluded from this guide’s instructions. Use the portal to find the appropriate technical materials, then obtain current requirements from the responsible officials. This batch did not comprehensively review every linked rule or later amendment. Save the actual rule/version and the authority’s project-specific explanation before procurement, construction or a change of use. Source: Colorado Regulation 86 resource portal — eligibility text needs update.
Evaluate a project through operation and succession
Ask who will inspect, maintain, test where required, keep records, pay for service and stop operation if a condition fails. Keep drinking-water separation, labeling and any required backflow or cross-connection safeguards within the qualified design review. Record what happens during an outage, ownership change or operator absence. For a community proposal, clarify responsibility for shared equipment and user communication rather than assuming volunteers will always be available. A useful next step is a written question set and documented authority response; no system commissioning, maintenance trial or regulatory approval has been completed here.
A pathway to practice
- Define source and use: Exposure, property, operator
- Check actual authority: Enacted law, local rules, supplier
- Assess qualified design: Separation, treatment, maintenance
- Keep the project accountable: Records, failures, future custodian
Resources and their limitations
CDC rainwater health assessment
Use it for: Choose the intended use before treating collected rain as a safe supply.
Access and cost: Public webpage freely readable; equipment, food, laboratory work, installation and operating costs are separate.
How to use it: Read Health risks and Recommendations; discuss testing, treatment and appropriate uses with the health program, and keep collected water out of safe piped water.
Evaluation and limits: Visible review July 23, 2024. No roof, catchment, tank, sample, maintenance or treatment performance was tested. First-flush diversion and screens do not alone establish drinking-water safety.
Alternatives: Local health/environmental authority; certified testing and appropriately designed treatment; public or bottled drinking water.
Open CDC rainwater health assessment
Colorado water-rights and collection navigator
Use it for: Identify the property, supply, intended use and responsible water authority.
Access and cost: Public webpage freely readable; equipment, food, laboratory work, installation and operating costs are separate.
How to use it: Read the relevant collection or graywater section and contact DWR and the supplier with the actual property and proposed use; verify current statutes and local requirements before design.
Evaluation and limits: Page contains older linked documents and a pilot-project section referring to a July 1, 2026 scheduled repeal. No continuing pilot authority, numeric barrel entitlement, well-permit condition or property approval is adopted from this page. Water rights and technical approval need separate checks.
Alternatives: Enacted legislation and current codified law; DWR, actual supplier and local building/health authority.
Open Colorado water-rights and collection navigator
Colorado Regulation 86 resource portal — eligibility text needs update
Use it for: Locate technical-rule links while checking later enacted law separately.
Access and cost: Public webpage freely readable; equipment, food, laboratory work, installation and operating costs are separate.
How to use it: Use the portal as a route to technical materials. Read the enacted HB24-1362 and obtain current local requirements before relying on eligibility statements.
Evaluation and limits: Its overview describes the older local opt-in framework. HB24-1362, effective January 1, 2026, changes that framework; the older overview is held from instructional use. Linked rule PDFs and later codification/amendments were not comprehensively audited.
Alternatives: Enacted HB24-1362, current codified statute and current local authority; DWR water-rights review.
Open Colorado Regulation 86 resource portal — eligibility text needs update
Colorado HB24-1362 enacted graywater framework
Use it for: Check the January 1, 2026 change and its express limits in the enacted text.
Access and cost: Public webpage freely readable; equipment, food, laboratory work, installation and operating costs are separate.
How to use it: Open the signed act from the official record. Read section 1 and the effective-date section, then verify current local prohibitions, technical requirements and any later amendments for the actual project.
Evaluation and limits: Official bill status and seven-page signed-act extraction reviewed. Deleted wording survives PDF plain-text extraction; only clear enacted additions and the official enacted summary support the guide. This is not a property approval or an audit of every later amendment.
Alternatives: Current codified C.R.S. and local building/health authority; DWR and supplier requirements.
Open Colorado HB24-1362 enacted graywater framework
Checklist
- Actual source and intended uses described
- Health exposure and safe-piped-water separation reviewed
- Water rights, permit and supplier route identified
- Enacted law distinguished from old overview and lost proposal
- Current local and technical requirements obtained for design
- Operator, maintenance, failure response and succession defined
Related guides
Water sources and household needs (SG-D07-S01); Drinking-water assessment and treatment (SG-D07-S02); Water interruption and storage (SG-D07-S03); Plumbing, leaks and conservation (SG-D07-S05); Toilets, wastewater and sanitation (SG-D07-S06); Choosing a site and understanding conditions (SG-D08-S01); Finding primary sources (SG-D18-S02); Checking claims and comparing evidence (SG-D18-S03).
From the Whole Earth registry to current practice
The Fall 1968 spring-protection and Spring 1969 solar-still pages (PDF pages 20 and 39; WE68-E028/WE68-L006 and WE69S-E083/WE69S-L015) provide questions about source, use and system limits. Their connection to today’s reuse assessment is an editorial inference. They are not evidence of modern graywater law or an approved reuse design.
Whole Earth Fall 1968 archive edition; Whole Earth Spring 1969 archive edition
HB25-1106 official status — Lost
Sources and review notes
Colorado enacted-act record and signed-text extraction were checked, not every later amendment, codified provision, local ordinance or technical rule. The old opt-in statement is held as Needs update. HB25-1106 is a lost proposal and is not permission. No property, design, water sample or community-system approval was assessed. Whole Earth spring and solar-still pages are conceptual research leads, not historical graywater-law evidence.
