Experiments in Water Policy

A major principle of American water management is that each of the 50 states is allowed to choose its own path, especially its guiding doctrines for how water is to be allocated. ¹ So states establish unique water policies. Each forms its individual body of law for administering both groundwater and surface water, often borrowing ideas from earlier-acting states. Because the U.S. government, through its deferral to state authority on most water use matters, has passed water ownership (at least much of it) to the states, any state can subsequently pass along this authority to local agencies or individual water users. States have many options.