@chris-bouffard It's a specialized subset of the legal and engineering/surveying professions. No doubt in the jungles and swamps east of the Mississippi water use isn't allocated like it is west of the big drain in the dry lands.
I'm not familiar with all the western state laws but riparian rights normally aren't recognized, the state owns all the water (with some exceptions such as stored irrigation water) and grants use (water rights) to petitioners. This, as you might expect, gets complicated. The older rights are the better/stronger rights. In other words, as the summer wears on newer rights are shut off until the last remaining one (oldest) is left standing (it's rare that those are regulated off, but it can happen). Even city yard watering can be restricted to none.
Surface water being the more intense and contentious right compared to ground water.
The interstate compacts often created by supreme rulings make everything very regulated.
As you might expect this isn't something learned in school to the depth necessary for an expert to understand. Good water right attorneys are not cheap, they are also rare.
I didn't think this thread would wonder off on attorney fees, but the interconnection between the Colorado River states creates a very intense and growing pressure to go after that water, same with the Platte, Snake, Yellowstone/Missouri drainages. They aren't making more land, and more water is a year to year phenomenon.
Mighty Moe presents an accurate description of water and its importance west of the Mississippi River. Water rights must be obtained formally through a complex process. I have been involved in this as I was once Charirman of the Board of Directors for a Wholesale Water Supply District removing water from the Neosho River in Eastern Kansas for conversion to potable water for numerous small cities and rural water districts. I have also worked for land owners who acquire water rights to flood fields to enhance the duck hunting business, which is currently a HUGE business in southeastern Neosho County. Years ago I worked with farmers building dams to store irrigation water. Water is big business.
