New York State Water Law

Abstract

New York State has both a common law of water rights, and a great body of statutory law to supplement it. The principal statutory provisions are found in Article 5 of the state Conservation Law, now known as the Water Resources Law, which sets forth the powers, duties, and responsibilities of the Water Resources Commission, as well as other provisions of the Conservation Law generally. Other principal state laws having provisions affecting the use of water are listed in the article. The current Water Resources Law demonstrated early on the policy of the legislature to regulate and control the use of water as much as possible and still retain the basic common‐law water doctrines. The Water Resources Commission has general control of the water over which the state has jurisdiction. As stated before, this jurisdiction is only over state‐owned waters or waters once privately owned, the water rights to which have been purchased and subjected to controlled public use. The article lists the major responsibilities of this commission.