Recycling rainwater a crime?

Precisely. It's not your water, even if it falls on your roof. It's the same reason you can't pull 10,000 gallons of water out of a river without permission. That water is quite often already pledged.

 

If it's not my water, can I charge the city/county/state any damages it may do to my property?

 

Actually, putting up solar panels will get you arrested in some places.
You have to get a permit, and, in my neighborhood, they won't grant one because it doesn't fit the historical something or other.
Same thing goes for other places around town, since most of the granola eating hippies live in historical neighborhoods, they can't have panels.
So you just can't hang panels on your roof if you feel like it.

 

They won't arrest you. They'll just fine you.

[/granola-eating hippie who lives in a historical neighborhood and wants solar panels]

 

What if you live in a dry county?

 

actually, being a native of the PNW, many cities nearly run out of drinking water every year at the end of summer depending on snow pack. the state is no stranger to water restrictions during long dry summers.

 

Yep. Keep in mind that while it rains all the time in parts of the Pacific Northwest, the actual amount of total precipitation isn't terribly high.

 

That and the eastern part of Washington (east of the mountains) is practically desert.

 

The area west of the Cascades in both Washington and Oregon gets all the rain because the mountains keep it there. Huge difference between, say, the Willamette Valley and Central Oregon.