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Show Chapter 18. LOUISIANA CONTENTS Page 1. Development of Louisiana Water Law__________________________ 347 2. State Organizational Structure for Water Administration and Control.- 348 2.1 Administration of Water Rights_______________________ 348 2.2 Resolution of Water Use Conflicts_____________________ 348 2.3 Other Agencies Having Water Resource Responsibilities___ 348 3. Surface Waters____________________________________________ 352 3.1 Method of Acquiring Rights__________________________ 352 3.2 Nature and Limit of Rights__________________________ 352 3.3 Changes, Sales, and Transfers_________________________ 356 3.4 Loss of Rights_____________________________________ 357 3.5 Storage Waters, Artificial Lakes, and Ponds______________ 358 3.6 Springs__________________________________________ 358 3.7 Diffused Surface Waters_____________________________ 359 4. Ground Water____________________________________________ 360 Publications Available________________________________________ 362 DISCUSSION 1. Development or Louisiana Water Law Classification of Louisiana as a "riparian doctrine" State is some- thing of an oversimplification. Certainly the evolution of riparian rghts in Louisiana is quite different from the development in com- mon law state. The civil code* classifies "running water" as res com- munes (those things which belong to nobody in particular and which all men may freely use). Common things are insusceptible of owner- ship,2 but since they are subject to use by all men, it has been sug- gested that it is not unreasonable to conclude that running water may be segregated, at which point it is capable of private ownership.3 The classification of running water as a common thing perhaps has little significance today in Louisiana because of more recent legisla- tion which seems to adopt a different categorization. In section 9:1101 of the revised statutes, the following expression is found: The waters of and in all bayous, rivers, streams, lagoons, lakes and bays, and the beds thereof, not under the direct ownership of any person on August 12, 1910, are declared to be the property of the State. There shall never be any charge assessed against any .person for the use of waters of the state for municipal, industrial, agricultural or domestic purposes ? * * * 1 Civil code, art. 450. For convenience, the articles of the civil code, the sections of the revised statutes, or the provisions of the Louisiana constitution are hereafter referred to simply by number. The references are to West's compilation as amended. For a useful compilation of materials, including an emphasis on Louisiana cases and statutes, see G. Hardy III, Handbook of Basic Water Law (La. State U. 1966, bull. 1). 8 Civil code, art. 482. ¦ Comment, 6 La. L. Eev. 500, 505 (1956). * The term "rivers" was Inserted in 1954. The second paragraph of the statute authorizes the State to take possession of the waters of navigable streams when its action is not in conflict with the powers of the Federal Government over interstate navigable streams. 347 |