[Rockhounds] rainwater

[J. R. Hodel]

We have friends here in WV that use rainwater catchment because they decided to live on their ridgetop for the sunshine and view, which adds thousands of dollars to the cost of a well which is less likely to hit an aquifer than wells drilled in the valleys.
In some western states surface rain (meteoric) water is technically owned by property owners like ranchers or farmers in downstream areas, either in the same state or in another downstream state. Therefore installing a catchment system may be problematic, perhaps less so if your caught water is all used as surface water for irrigation of your property, so you could make a claim that you're only changing the timing of that water hitting it downhill to the "proper" owners.
Since there are lawyers whose practice is specialized on water rights out west, and IANAL, much less a water rights lawyer, this is no doubt far more complicated than anyone posting here is gonna get. If the guy was building dams and such, he wasn't just violating water rights, he was violating water quality requirements AND dam safety requirements as well. Dams that get washed out due to heavy rain adn poor engineering and construction can be quite deadly downstream.

Here in WV a coal company built an ad hoc dam in the river to accumulate water for their processing plant, as just an intake didn't provide consistent quantities for continuous production. They got slapped down hard financially and required to seek permits and to engineer their dam as opposed to just sending a dozer into the river.. Low water bridges are another thing you need permits for, as in low water conditions they're actually dams affecting water life downstream by killing it off dead and dried out.