United States Water Law

The development of water law in the United States is reviewed, and its present status is appraised, in this paper. In general, greater progress has been made in the definition of principles and their applications to the determination of water rights for surface streams than for ground waters. This is the result of the earlier utilization of surface streams and their less involved conditions of supply and use. Similar advances in ground water have been retarded by more complex conditions of occurrence and greater difficulties in the measurement and control of use. Greater use of ground water, particularly in areas now overdrawn, is forcing attention to the resultant problems. Several western states are now seeking to improve conditions through various methods of control.