Riparian lands of Miller & Lux and Herminghaus, San Joaquin River, 1891

Courtesy of David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com.

In April 1850, the California Legislature adopted the English Common Law as the basic legal framework for California. Gold, not so much water, was on the minds of many in early California, and they did not ponder what this action meant in relation to water. English Common Law recognizes riparian rights to water as the main legal doctrine governing the use of water, and so it became California law.

Riparian rights are rights to divert, use and enjoy waters from a stream that abuts your landed property, your real estate. If you own land that has a stream next to or running through it, you probably have riparian rights to divert water from the stream and use it to grow crops or for other purposes specific to your property.

For most riparian right holders in California, you cannot lose your water rights merely by your own non-use of the resource, unless someone obtains a "prescriptive right" by diverting for at least five years without a challenge from you.

Riparian rights are held in common by all the land owners along a stream or river here in California. They have "correlative rights" with respect to each other; that is, they own a right to use a percentage of the flow of the stream every year, a percentage which doesn't change. In dry years, however, they must take less from the stream, according to the riparian doctrine.

Water Rights Primer