| OCR Text |
Show Chapter 10. GEORGIA CONTENTS Page 1. Development of Georgia Water Law___________________________ 227 2. State Organizational Structure for Water Administration and Control._ 228 2.1 Administration of Water Rights_______________________ 228 2.2 Resolution of Water Use Conflicts_____________________ 228 2.3 Other Agencies Having Water Resource Responsibilities____ 228 3. Surface Waters____________________________________________ 231 3.1 Method of Acquiiing Rights__________________________ 231 3.2 Nature and Limit of Rights__________________________ 231 3.3 Changes, Sales, and Transfers_________________________ 234 3.4 Loss of Rights____________________________________ 235 3.5 Storage Waters, Artificial Lakes, and Ponds_____________ 236 3.6 Springs__________________________________________ 237 3.7 Diffused Surface Waters_____________________________ 238 4. Ground Water____________________________________________ 239 Publications Available________________________________________ 240 DISCUSSION 1. Development of Georgia Water Law The law of riparian rights in Georgia is very limited but has a unique history. Although it consists principally of judicial decisions which dealt with the problems of riparians on an ad hoc basis, the State legislature did attempt to codify the law of riparian rights in 1860. Most of the decisions since then involve interpretations of these statutes. It is now generally agreed that the riparian system is an ineffective method of allocating water resources among various types of competing users, and statutory codification of riparian law is probably not particularly helpful. As the demand for water has increased, there has been some agita- tion for water law reform in the State. Farmers are becoming in- creasingly interested in water for irrigation. Demands on the State's water resources by industrial users and municipalities are greater than in the past. A water law revision commission was created by the legislature in 1955 to review water problems and to recommend legislation.1 Apparently because of conflicts among special interest groups, not a great deal was accomplished, and in 1965 the commis- sion was abolished by the legislature. Recently, Mr. Robert Clark Kates of the Institute of Government of the University of Georgia School of Law has published a useful text in which he advocates new legislation on riparian rights.2 His proposed statute is discussed in section 3.2 of this chapter. 1 Georgia acts. 1955, p. 407, repealed by Georgia acts. 1957, p. 264, and Georgia acts, 1964, pp. 416 and 436. SR. Kates, Georgia Water Law (1969) (hereafter cited as "Kates"). See also W. Agnor, Riparian Rights in Georgia, 18 Ga. B.J. 401 (1956). 227 499-242-73------16 |
