Water Rights

Are there Water Lefts? (Not a political statement.)

When it comes to our own bodies, we’ve got the right to do all kinds of things to it. We can get tattoos, or dye our hair, or take multivitamins. We can take specific medications and eat specific foods and legally, unless we’re hurting ourselves or someone else, there’s not really too much other people can do about it.

But what about our water bodies? What are our rights there? And no, we’re not talking about our backyard swimming pool, or that koi pond we built last summer. But if we live on the beach or on the banks of a river, what are our rights with regard to those bodies of water? In other words, what are our water rights?

Specifically, the types of water rights we have depends on the body of water in question. If our land borders a huge lake or an ocean, our water rights are called littoral rights. If we’re talking streams and rivers, those water rights are called riparian rights. These rights tell us what kind of access we have to the water, and they also tell us what we can do with it.

For example, we might be able to fish and swim in the river adjacent to our yard, but we might not be able to divert its flow to irrigate our eggplant farm. Laws vary, so anyone who’s lucky enough to live on the water should check out what their local governing bodies have to say about their water bodies.