Administering a Regulated Riparian System of Water Rights

by Joseph W. Dellapenna, (A.M.ASCE), Villanova Univ Sch of Law, Villanova, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Water Policy and Management: Solving the Problems

Abstract:

Western states, facing steadily increasing demands on limited water resources, have developed administrative regimes for regulating water use based on the judicially developed private property concepts derived from the customary appropriative rights dominant in the west. Eastern states have declined to adopt appropriative rights but have instead developed markedly different model of administrative rights based upon riparian principles. This new model of water law is best described as a 'regulated riparian' system. Regulated riparianism treats water as a form of public property rather than common property (as under riparian rights) or as private property (as under appropriative rights). Water use depends upon the grant of a permit by the state and is not limited to riparian lands, but the allocation is made according to administratively determinations of the 'reasonableness' of competing uses rather than upon temporal priority.

Subject Headings: Water rights | Water resources | Riparian water | Water supply systems | Water policy | Water use | Water treatment

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