riparian rights


Riparian Rights

The right to use running water as it comes on to one's property. Riparian rights include, for example, the right to fish and the right to use the water to power machinery on one's land. Riparian rights come with various duties and responsibilities, such as not to pollute water such that it would affect the rights of property owners downstream and not to prevent the free passage of fish. With certain, limited exceptions, riparian rights are non-transferable. The rights have their origins in English common law.

riparian rights

Rights pertaining to the use of water in, on, near, or flowing over land.The most common rights are the right to a reasonable use of the water,the right to use the shoreline and have access to the water,the right to any land formed by accretion or relication,the right to have the water flow to the land without obstruction, the limited right to build piers in the water, and the right to catch fish, although the land owner does not own the fish. Although the word “riparian” typically applies to rivers and streams but not lakes, the expression “riparian rights”generally means to imply any rights having to do with water,including surface runoff.

References in periodicals archive ?
riparian rights, (260) although the Court unconvincingly refuted that
(74) It is important to point out that in most states the concept of riparian rights is not limited to flowing waters but also extends to coastal waters, and natural lakes and ponds.
The Band claimed that it had rights to appropriate water for its reasonable needs, that the riverbed of the Oldman River formed part of the reserve, and that the construction of the dam and reservoir would change the flow and quality of the Oldman River through the reserve and interfere with the Band's water or riparian rights: Peigan Indian Band v.
The commission's objectives had led to the 1913 Water Commission Act, a statute that required all new appropriative water rights filings (claims based on beneficial use, the date of diversion, and not necessarily linked to real property ownership) to be listed with California officials to create a centralized registry (pre-existing appropriative claims and riparian rights did not have to be similarly filed).
Specifically, Part II argues that the appurtenancy requirement within riparian law--restricting riparian rights to appurtenant owners and restricting usage to appurtenant land-bears distinct similarities to key features of common property regimes.
In the West, riparian rights have been most important in states along the Pacific coast and those straddling the one-hundredth meridian that generally divides the humid east from the arid lands beyond.
Thus, based on modern principles of international water law, both the historic riparian rights of Israel as the downstream user and the rights of the Palestinians as the upstream party on a shared international body of water must be considered on the basis of equity and legitimate needs.
Riparian rights became defined in terms of economic progress; instrumental use took precedence over customary use or natural flow.
To complement the Western perspective, this edition incorporates recent developments in the law of riparian rights and regulated riparianism.