When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.

- Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac

From A History of Water Rights at Common Law, by Joshua Getzler, which is now on my Xmas List (only $50 at Amazon):

Water resources were central to England’s precocious economic development in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and then again in the industrial, transport, and urban revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Each of these periods saw a great deal of legal conflict over water rights, often between domestic, agricultural, and manufacturing interests competing for access to flowing water. From 1750 the common-law courts developed a large but unstable body of legal doctrine, specifying strong property rights in flowing water attached to riparian possession, and also limited rights to surface and underground waters.

The new water doctrines were built from older concepts of common goods and the natural rights of ownership, deriving from Roman and Civilian law, together with the English sources of Bracton and Blackstone. Water law is one of the most Romanesque parts of English law, demonstrating the extent to which Common and Civilian law have commingled.

Alabama water rights are determined under Riparian Rights for surface waters.  The United Kingdom and most U.S. States East of the Mississippi River follow Riparian Rights (derived from English Common Law); most Western States use the Prior Appropriation doctrine.  Basically, water is owned by the Government (Federal and State), so proper stewardship of this public resource is a function of Government.

Riparian water rights occur as a result of landownership. A landowner who owns land that physically touches a river, stream, pond, or lake has an equal right to the use of water from that source. This water right, however, is only a usufructuary right and not a property right in the water. The water may be used as it passes through the property of the land owner, but it cannot be unreasonably detained or diverted, and it must be returned to the stream from which it was obtained. The use of riparian water rights is generally regulated by “reasonable use.”  

The prior appropriation doctrine (also known as the Colorado Doctrine from Wyoming v. Colorado), or “first in time - first in right”, developed in the western United States in response to the scarcity of water in the region.

Legislative committee takes first step toward water policy

The Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Water Policy and Management met at Auburn University in its first meeting since being formed this spring. The committee is made up of seven members each from the House and Senate.

Its members at the meeting chose State Sen. Kim Benefield, D-Woodland, chairman and Rep. Greg Canfield, R-Vestavia Hills vice chairman. The pair sponsored the legislation that created the committee… the group is to recommend a water management plan that expands the availability of water to meet Alabama’s current and future needs, develop conservation programs, and identify areas where more research is needed.

Workshop sessions are being led by officials from Auburn’s Water Resources Center, the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, the Geological Survey of Alabama, the Alabama Office of Water Resources, and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Investing in state’s waterways, by State Senator Kim Benefield (D - Woodland) and State Representative Greg Canfield (R - Birmingham):

Ten percent of the nation’s rivers pass through Alabama… the U.S. Geological Survey continues to report that most of Alabama is seeing below-average stream flows. Ground-water levels in Huntsville are far below normal, and in Montgomery ground-water levels have reached a new record low…

Created by the passage of SJR28 — bipartisan legislation we were pleased to sponsor — the committee met at Auburn University to begin the process of studying Alabama’s water resources and assessing our future water needs…

Our recognition of the many critical roles water plays in Alabama spurred us to sponsor SJR28, and now we are committed — as chair and vice-chair of the Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Water Policy and Management — to developing a consensus-based water-management plan that takes into account the needs of every Alabamian and serves our citizens well in the future.

 

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This entry was posted by Reactionary on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 12:23 am and is filed under Alabama, Environment, Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.