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Drinking From A Deep Well: The Public Trust Doctrine And Western Water Law, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

American water law reflects the diverse geography and population patterns of this expansive country.1 In the eastern states, where water is rather abundant, the doctrine of riparian rights dominates water law.2 The arid western states, in contrast, rejected the doctrine of riparian rights in favor of the doctrine of prior appropriation due to a natural scarcity of water and increasing population growth.3 The western states provide fertile ground to consider the burdens of a rapidly growing region on already scarce water resources.4 My thesis is that the public trust doctrine is being underutilized by the states and that the optimal …