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Show CALIFORNIA 145 b. SALES AND TRANSFERS OF WATER RIGHTS Water rights may be conveyed either as appurtenant to real prop- erty or separate therefrom. Rights may also be obtained by lease, license, and contract. Transfers of water separate from the land have been uncommon in California. (1) Riparian rights As a rule, riparian rights are appurtenant to the land and are transferred by conveyance of the real property.144 Although courts hesitate to imply a reservation of appurtenant water rights, they may be reserved by express language in the conveyance.145 The general presumption against implied reservation notwithstanding, riparian rights do not pass with land which is not contiguous to the water- course unless expressly stated in the conveyance.148 Riparian rights may also be conveyed separately from the land, but any separate conveyance binds only the grantor and his successors and not other riparians.147 Thus, a riparian water right may be con- veyed to be used on nonriparian land only if there is no injury to other riparians or they consent to the transfer.148 (2) Appropriative rights Water rights acquired by appropriation may also be transferred as appurtenant to land in a conveyance of real property or separate therefrom.149 California, unlike some other States, does not have a statute declaring all water rights to be appurtenant to the land-a very great restriction on transfers.150 Although appropriative rights need not be appurtenant, as originally acquired they were appur- tenant, and it is only upon express reservation in a later conveyance of the land or by express language in the conveyance of the separate water right that the right is severed.151 As with riparian water rights, appurtenant appropriative water rights are presumed to be trans- ferred when the land is conveyed. Transfers of water rights of all types are transfers of real property and must be in writing to avoid the statute of frauds.152 A transfer may be for the whole or any part of the water right.153 (3) Transfers by irrigation districts The water code prohibits the sale of any water right by an irriga- tion district.154 Other sections authorize the sale of district "prop- erty" under prescribed conditions, but the more specific prohibition against sale of water rights is apparently controlling, and water rights are not "property" for purposes of the Irrigation District "*Holmes v. Nay, 186 C. 231, 236-237, 199 P. 325 (1921). i« Burr v. Maclay Rancho Water Co., 160 C. 268, 277, 116 P. 715 (1911). *« Anaheim Union Water Co. v. Fuller, 150 C. 327, 331, 88 P. 978 (1907). U7 Sorina Valley Water Go. v. Alameda County, 88 Cal. app. 157, 164, 263 P. 318 (1927) : Parker v. Swett, 188 C. 474, 485, 205 p. 1065 (1922). "8 Id. «9Mount Carmel Fruit Go. v. Webster, 140 C. 183, 186-187, 73 P. 826 (1903). 160 See Meyers and Posner, "Market Transfers of Water Rights," National Water Com- mission, legal study No. 4, July 1, 1971, NWC-L-71-009, p. 25. 151 See Hutchins, pp. 124-127. un Churchill v. Russell, 148 C. 1, 82 P. 440 (1905). "a Calkins v. Sorosis Fruit Co., 150 C. 426, 431, 88 P. 1094 (1907). »*W.C., sec. 22261. |