Green Building Chroncile reports that the Atlanta City Council will hold a public hearing tonight at 6pm on permitting rainwater harvesting systems designed provide water inside the home.   The city is hoping to come up with a permitting process and establish fees on “potable rainwater catchment systems for residential use.”

“Charge me for harvesting rainwater?!  That’s ridiculous!”, you say.

Well, slow down there Rainy Jane.  This isn’t about the rain barrel you use to water your vegetable garden.  Uncle Sam isn’t interested in getting between you and Mother Nature when it comes to that.  I’ll let Mr. Edelstien explain…

What the ordinance would do is set up a permitting system to treat rainwater and to use it inside the house. The potentially controversial part regards what happens next: Household water must then be disposed of through the sewers and treated as wastewater, which means there’s a public cost.

In Atlanta, as well as other municipalities in Georgia, potable rainwater systems currently live in a sort of purgatory: They’re not illegal to install, but there’s no permitting system that allows them to be operated.

If approved, Edelstein says that Atlanta’s ordinance could become a model for the rest of the country.

Photo ripped from Creative Loafing since I can’t find the “City of Atlanta” source file.