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Washington, D.C.: Laws & Legal Considerations

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The District treats a rain barrel or cistern as green stormwater infrastructure worth paying you to install, not just a permitted hobby.

RuleWashington, D.C.
Source water Rooftop or other catchment
Permit required No permit needed for a standard rain barrel or cistern
Incentive program RiverSmart Rewards: up to 55% off the DC Stormwater Fee and up to 20% off the Clean Rivers Impervious Area Charge, both billed through DC Water, for qualifying green infrastructure installed after May 1, 2009
Direct rebate Separate rain barrel rebate: $2 per gallon of capacity (50-gallon minimum, screened inlet required) plus up to $150 toward installation

Where to find it: the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment (doee.dc.gov).

Water rights: no riparian doctrine, because there’s effectively one water system

Unlike a state, D.C. doesn’t have a body of riparian or prior-appropriation case law governing private water use, because there’s almost nothing for such a doctrine to apply to: nearly the entire district is served by a single retail utility rather than private wells or diversions.

ConceptHow it works in D.C.
Basic framework No documented general riparian-rights doctrine distinct from a narrow statutory permit scheme
Waterfront construction D.C. Code §47-2711 requires a permit and fee for filling, dredging, or building structures (like a wharf) along the Potomac or Anacostia, a construction rule, not a water-allocation doctrine
Retail supply DC Water (D.C. Water and Sewer Authority), an independent authority established in 1996, is the sole retail water and sewer utility
Interstate layer The Potomac River is coordinated through the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB), a non-regulatory body with D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and federal commissioners, created by a 1940 interstate compact

Where to find it: DC Water administers retail service; the ICPRB coordinates the interstate river basin.

Concealed carry: shall-issue since 2017, but D.C. honors no other jurisdiction’s permit

D.C.’s concealed carry law changed fundamentally in 2017, but it remains an island in one specific way: it doesn’t reciprocate with anyone.

RequirementDetail
Standard Shall-issue since Wrenn v. District of Columbia (D.C. Cir. 2017) struck down the prior good-reason/special-need requirement
Minimum age 21
Training 16-hour firearms training course covering District and federal firearms law, self-defense law, and marksmanship, plus 2 hours of live-fire range training with an MPD-certified instructor
Renewal 4-hour refresher course plus range requalification (70% accuracy required); license valid 2 years
Reciprocity None: D.C. does not recognize a concealed carry license issued by any other state or jurisdiction

No reciprocity, in either direction, with any state

Every state covered on this site’s By State section has some concealed carry framework, and most recognize at least a handful of other states’ permits. D.C. recognizes none. A valid permit from any of the 50 states doesn’t authorize carrying in the District, and a D.C. license doesn’t carry weight elsewhere either; anyone who might carry both in D.C. and while traveling needs to treat the two as entirely separate legal questions, not one credential that travels.

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