Water Rights

There are three types of water rights:

1. Riparian Rights (Rivers):
   1. Along a NAVIGABLE river, (commercial traffic) one owns to the water's edge.
   2. Along a NON-NAVIGABLE stream, one owns the land to the center of the stream. (The government owns the water.)
2. Littoral Rights (Seashore and beaches): Along large NAVIGABLE lakes and oceans, one owns to the average high water mark.
3. Doctrine of Prior Appropriation:
   1. A state's government can give permission to a non-adjacent landowner for crop IRRIGATION and other uses.
   2. A theory of water law based on the principle restated as "first in time is first in rights," with regard to the right to divert water from a water source. The theory is that if available water were equally divided among all potential users, there would not be an adequate supply to produce anything; but if the water were concentrated in a few, then at least something would be produced. Generally, these rights are along the Colorado and Rio Grande Rivers.