Knox County has no ordinance prohibiting or specially regulating residential rain barrels or rainwater collection. Tennessee does not restrict rainwater harvesting, so homeowners may collect roof runoff for outdoor use.
Collecting rainwater in barrels or cisterns for landscape use is not regulated by a Knox County ordinance, and Tennessee places no statewide restriction on rainwater harvesting. Rain barrels are commonly encouraged as a stormwater best-management practice. If rainwater will be plumbed into a home for indoor or potable use, plumbing-code and Health Department requirements apply; simple outdoor barrels for gardens do not need county approval. The county stormwater program actually promotes runoff reduction, of which rain capture is one method.
No county penalty for using rain barrels. Cross-connecting harvested water to indoor potable plumbing without code-compliant backflow protection can be a plumbing violation.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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Knox County parks are open sunrise to sunset unless otherwise posted or for a permitted event. Being in a county park after hours is prohibited. Loud or ampl...
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Knox County's Zoning Ordinance requires outdoor lighting be shielded and directed away from residential lot lines, and bars operations producing intense glar...
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Knox County has no formal dark-sky ordinance, but its Zoning Ordinance requires outdoor lighting for parking, storage, display, or security to be shielded an...
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Knox County has no separate garage-sale-sign category; such signs are regulated as temporary signs. They cannot be fixed to poles, trees, fences, or anything...
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In unincorporated Knox County, a political candidate sign may be posted without a building permit, but it cannot exceed 32 square feet, cannot be displayed f...
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The Knox County Zoning Ordinance has no separate tiny-home category. A tiny home is treated as a dwelling, and the ordinance allows only one house per lot in...
See how Knox County's rainwater harvesting rules stack up against other locations.
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