Watering Lawns and Negative Externalities

With spring coming into full swing in recent weeks in the Northeast, I have begun to deal with commonalities of season, including sprinklers. On my property, there are electronic sprinklers designed to go on at midnight to minimize the chance that someone would get wet, and are also placed to minimize water reaching the sidewalk.

However, most people don't have such an effective system, and have sprinklers that consistently launch water at innocent pedestrians. Recently it occurred to me that people should be fined for such egregious "sprinkling" of water to account for the negative externalities that include someone getting wet, and the forced movement into the street, which may increase the chance that one could be hit by a car. While the second may seem a tad absurd, the first is a clear showing of how "other people" must take the cost of people watering their lawns.