Water rights are everyone’s right. It’s the type of interest that is and should be associated to homeownership. Additionally, this pertains to rights of using adjacent water bodies. There are different kinds of water rights that are in existence today and they are based on the forms of water that is in existence or surrounding the property.
How it Works?
The Riparian rights are being awarded to landowners in which properties are situated in flowing bodies of water including streams or rivers.
In most cases, the landowners have rights of using the water so long as it is not harming the downstream or upstream neighbors.
In case that water is non-navigable waterway, then more often than not, the landowner automatically owns the land that’s beneath the water.
Then, we also have the Littoral rights. In this regards, it is pertaining to landowners whose land border is navigable to oceans and lakes. There are currents and tides that are affecting these types of bodies of water. However, they are not flowing by the land in the same way as rivers and streams.
Those who have littoral rights have an unrestricted access to water but owns the land to median high water mark.