| Dictionary: riparian right |
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| Business Dictionary: Riparian Rights |
Rights that accrue to owners of land on the banks of bodies of water, such as the use of such water and ownership of soil under the water. The lands to which these natural rights are attached are called in law riparian lands.
| Real Estate Dictionary: Riparian Rights |
Rights pertaining to the use of water on, under, or Adjacent to one's land. May be qualified to avoid Nuisance and pollution. Riparian rights are recognized in most eastern states but rarely in western states, where they recognize Usufructuary Rights.Example: See Riparian Owner.
| Architecture: riparian right |
The right of a landowner to use water from a river or other body of water on which his land abuts.
| Law Encyclopedia: Riparian Rights |
The rights, which belong to landowners through whose property a natural watercourse runs, to the benefit of such stream for all purposes to which it can be applied.
Riparian water, as distinguished from flood water, is the water that is below the highest line of normal flow of the river or stream.
See: water rights.
| Wikipedia: Riparian water rights |
Riparian water rights (or simply riparian rights) is a system of allocating water among those who possess land about its source. It has its origins in English common law. Riparian rights exist in many countries with a common law heritage, such as Canada, Australia, and states in the eastern United States.
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Under the riparian principle, all landowners whose property is adjacent to a body of water have the right to make reasonable use of it. If there is not enough water to satisfy all users, allotments are generally fixed in proportion to frontage on the water source. These rights cannot be sold or transferred other than with the adjoining land, and water cannot be transferred out of the watershed.
Riparian rights include such things as the right to access for swimming, boating and fishing; the right to wharf out to a point of navigability; the right to erect structures such as docks, piers, and boat lifts; the right to use the water for domestic purposes; the right to accretions caused by water level fluctuations. Riparian rights also depend upon "reasonable use" as it relates to other riparian owners to ensure that the rights of one riparian owner are weighed fairly and equitably with the rights of adjacent riparian owners.[1].
In the western United States, water rights are generally allocated under the principle of prior appropriation.
The Environment Agency lists the riparian rights and duties in England and Wales:[2]
Rights:
Duties:
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This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (October 2009) |
In determining boundaries there is a clear distinction between properties that front on navigable and non-navigable waters. Navigable waters are both those bodies of water that are obviously highways of commerce (the Hudson River, the Delaware River, the Ohio River, the Mississippi etc) and those that have been declared by a state legislature as navigable.
In the case of navigable waters, title goes to the average low water mark. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court defined this as the ""ordinary low water mark, unaffected by drought; that is, the height of the water at ordinary stages." Appeal of York Haven Water & Power Co., 212 Pa. 622, 62 A.97 (1905.)
Land beyond the low water mark belongs to the state government in the case of the 13 original states. Lands between the high and low water marks are subject to the police powers of the states. (see United States v. Pennsylvania Salt Mfg. Co., 16 F.2d 476 (E.D. Pa., 1926)). In the case of the original 13 states, upon ratification of the United States Constitution, title to these lands did not change, it remained vested in the several states. However, these titles became subject to the "Commerce Clause" of the Constitution which created an easement or "servitude" benefiting the federal government for the purpose of regulating commerce on navigable bodies of water. Borax Consolidated, Ltd. v. City of Los Angeles, 29 U.S. 10, 56 S. Ct. 23, 80 L.Ed 9 (1935). As new lands were acquired by the United States, either by purchase or treaty, title to the beds of all navigable or tidal lakes, rivers, or their tributaries became vested in the United States, unless they had been validly conveyed into private ownership by the former sovereign. McKnight v. Brodell, 212 F.Supp 45. During the territorial period of these lands, the United States held these title "in trust" for the benefit of the future states which would be carved out of the territory. Hymes v. Grimes Company, 165 F. 2d 323. Each of the states were to come into the Union on an "equal footing" with the original thirteen states. Under the "equal footing" doctrine, territorial states are vested with the same sovereign title rights to wetlands as the original thirteen states. Pollard v. Hagan, 44 U.S. 212, 3 How. 212, 11 L.Ed. 565 (1845). However, during the territorial period, the United States could convey certain of these lands under the limited circumstances of promoting commerce. Brewer Elliot Oil and Gas Co. v. U S., 260 U.S. 77, 43 S.Ct 60, 67 L.Ed. 140 (1922). Any questions as to the ownership of these lands was resolved by Congress passing the Submerged Land Act, 43 U.S.C.A. 1301, which confirmed and quit-claimed title in various states to the beds of all navigable bodies of water. While this act conveyed navigable waters to the states, non navigable waters outside the 13 colonies remained the property of the United States. Waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tides, but which are non navigable passed to the states.
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