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all claimants based on the date each claimant fi rst appropriated the
water and put it to benefi cial use. Instead, they generally pursue
individual appeals in court if they believe they've been adversely
affected by the granting or denial of a water-use permit, says Warren.
“We don't take an entire stream fl ow and divide it among all claim-
ants in a manner akin to property rights, as the West does in [its]
stream adjudications.”
It is also highly unlikely that an individual homeowner in the East
who seeks to drill a well to supply a residence would be denied the
right to withdraw water, adds Warren. The water regimes in the East
generally assume the existence of suffi cient supplies. The amount
of water withdrawn by an individual homeowner in most instances
is unlikely to interfere with needs of other users and may be below
the quantity thresholds that require permits. “Thresholds,” naturally,
vary by water basin or regulatory agency, region, and more.
WESTERN WOES
Ownership of water in the West generally is separate from land
ownership and is quantifi ed in terms of entitlement to a certain
number of gallons or acre-feet at a certain time or for a certain pe-
riod. Just as someone buys a piece of land for the right to build
or own a home on the surface of that land and acquires the sur-
face rights, each piece of land across the country also has sepa-
rate mineral rights, and, in the case of the West, separate water
rights. Those rights to water can be further divided into surface
water, groundwater, and various aquifers' water; divided again into
primary, secondary, tertiary, and gray (wastewater) rights; and
so on. A rigid pecking order determines who gets the water fi rst,
how much of it he or she gets, and so on down the line. Primary
or senior water rights are fi rst in line, followed by secondary, and
so on. Of course, that's unless water treaties or agreements are in
place that state something else.
The most contentious water battle Strong says he has seen in 25
years in Idaho pits water rights users against each other. The fi ght
came to a head—or so people thought at the time—in March 2009
when senior surface-water rights holders claimed that groundwater
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