Our doctrine of appropriative and riparian water rights was enacted in the early 1850s and is literally about who has the right to use river water in California. Whomever claims water for a ...

California still recognizes water rights based on those old claims, as well as riparian rights based on land ownership next to rivers and streams. Rights to surface water under the state’s prior ...

California legislators have passed a bill ... state water regulators may investigate claims of pre-1914 or riparian water rights, issue an order for information, and, after a hearing, curb any ...

Those claims are not true. In California, water rights are owned by a collection of municipalities, homeowners and agricultural interests. Rights holders do not own the actual water; they own the ...

When settlers came to California in the 1800s, they staked out land and diverted water from nearby sources, establishing appropriative rights. These were in addition riparian rights, which are ...

If California realized its unique potential to invest in new water supply projects, with federal help, it would give it the ability to be flexible when asserting its senior water rights on the ...

The Wonderful Co. also owns water rights across its farmland. But those sources amount to a tiny percentage of California’s overall water, experts said. The Kern Water Bank can store up to 1.5 ...

An environmentalist is criticizing a proposed California water plan ... given California's long-standing water problems as the state battles for water rights and endures longer droughts.