Basic Water Rights Doctrines and Their Implications for River Basin Development

Abstract

In transmitting report of his Advisory Committee on Water Resources Policy, President stated that the policies we adopt for development of our water resources will have a profound effect in years to come upon our domestic, agricultural and industrial economy.' The report estimates that demand for water in nation will almost double by 1975 and that there must be a substantial increase in beneficial use of water.2 This will require increased development by individuals and corporations, as well as by public agencies. The river basin is now generally accepted as appropriate physiographic unit for planning and developing water resource utilization. The interrelated and competing uses of water within a river basin, however, often give rise to varied and complex problems that appear susceptible of solution only by integrated action of all interests, public and private, within basin's natural boundaries.3 Thus, while group development of water resources has always been important, new impetus has been given to watershed, small project, ground-water basin, multipurpose project, and river and interriver basin programs, which appear to promise greater efficacy than development undertaken on an individual basis. State water laws, which have been framed with reference to individual action in developing water resources in past, may not, accordingly, be adequate for future. In this connection, several important and troublesome areas have been pointed out.4 The increasing consumptive use of water in riparian-doctrine eastern states, for example, has created an interest in appropriation doctrine as it might apply there. The shifting demand for water similarly has raised problems in appropria-