"RichToyBox" wrote in message
...
There are basically two different types of water law in the US. Eastern
and
Western. In western water law, a person registers a claim, and noone
upstream is allowed to use water that would affect that persons claim. If
there is a serious drought, many people may have water go through their
property, and not be able to use a drop. That is how California gets most
of the Colorado river, though it has many more miles in Arizona. Eastern
water law basically says that you can use the water that goes across your
property, including damming it up, but you cannot divert the water to a
different waterway. Some cities in the east are violating the water law,
by
creating lakes on one waterway, and piping the water to their citizens.
This creates some change in flow pattern, allowing changes in species,
etc.


My experience comes from my purchasing a landlocked lot having a springhouse
upon it, adjacent to my parcel a few years back...in SW Wa.....

It had been used by the family whose heirs had filed the original donation
land claim a few generations prior for irrigating some bottom lands for
farming....but the pipeline hadn't been actually used since the early
50's....

The agreement was actually written by myself, then reviewed by an
attorney....If I recall correctly, the agreement called for him to
relinquish all rights to said water excepting I was to do nothing to cause
the water to flow in a different direction than it currently followed....

--

SVL