Water Rights

Well Permit

Authorization to use well water for single family residences.

Riparian Rights

Common in eastern states, the right of a landowner whose property borders streams or rivers to use and enjoy that water.

Prior Appropriation Water Rights

Common in western states, the right to divert un-appropriated waters of a natural stream to beneficial use according to priority of usage.

Flood plain

Flat land adjacent to waterways that is subject to overflow and subject to government control.

Littoral Water Rights

Littoral Land is a term used to refer to land that is located next to a pooled body of water that is situated next to a lake, ocean, or sea. With littoral rights an owner will only have the right to use up to the edge or high water mark. The term stands in contrast to riparian land, which is land located next to flowing waterways like a river or stream.

Prior Appropriation Water Rights

Prior appropriation rights (developed in Colorado and California) are common in the west. Water rights are "first in time, first in right". That is, the first party to claim usage and continues to use has the right. The date that water was first put to beneficial use, or the date that a successful application for a water right was submitted, generally indicates the relative status of seniority among competing users. Older rights are senior; more recent rights are junior, AND preference in use matters: domestic use first, then agricultural use, then industrial. Many western states use the doctrine of prior appropriation .

Riparian Water Rights

Riparian water rights allocate water among those who possess land along its path like rivers and streams. Common land ownership can be organized into a "partition unit", that is, an association consisting of the landowners on the shore that formally owns the water area and determines its use. Riparian rights of each owner allow the owner to use to the middle of the river or stream.

Well permit

State engineer administers tributary waters and residential wells Well permit must be given to use water for single-family residence. The permit will state amount and how to be used (could state no watering of garden, etc.).

Littoral Rights

The landowner's right to use and enjoy water when their property borders a lake, pond or sea.

Adjudication

The legal process of resolving a dispute by a court of law or governmental agency. Once an issue is adjudicated, it indicates that the claims of all parties have been considered and settled. E.x. State court approves one's use of well water from an aquifer and tributary waters.

Percolating Water

Underground water not confined to a defined underground waterway

Percolating Water

Underground water not confined to a defined underground waterway (water table = groundwater level). Some mountain wells are fissure wells (they collect water seeping through cracks in granite).