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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

Water rights are determined based primarily upon state law.  Federal law 
applies when Indian Tribes, etc. dispute rights.  I've had to pursue 
discovery of my water rights in more than a single state.  In states where 
water is a real issue, there are always attorneys who specialize in that 
area.  For a small landowner like me, it has always been best to let the 
title company and/or a lawyer figure things out.  I just stay out of the fray.

Mineral rights are a mess.  during the Great Depression, opportunists , 
primarily from big northern cities, would travel through the South and stop 
at every farm and buy 50% of their mineral rights for a few dollars.  I don't 
know why , but usually it was 50%;  Maybe that was all state law would allow 
at the time.  ...bobford


--- On Tue, 6/24/08, Roy Morgan <k1lky AT earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Roy Morgan <k1lky AT earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] Garden pests, four-legged variety
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 9:03 PM
> On Jun 24, 2008, at 6:55 PM, Bunjov AT aol.com wrote:
> ...but I need to know whatever I can find
> > out about 'in-stream water rights'. I've
> googled myself silly and  
> > yet no
> > clarification.
> 
> Sandy,
> 
> Celia tells me that the magazine we get about small farms
> and such  
> lifestyle is Countryside.  Lately, it has had a number of
> articles or  
> question/answers or letters from readers about mineral
> rights.   
> "Mineral rights" may include water rights.  In
> the case that started  
> the series of articles, a reader whose mineral rights were
> sold by an  
> earlier owner to an oil company tells of "company
> men" who come at  
> will onto her property to set off explosive charges in
> search of oil  
> or gas.  Apparently they act badly in the process. 
> Important points I  
> remember from the articles are:
> 
>   - It takes a lawyer or other specialist to know and
> understand "the  
> law" regarding mineral rights in *your* area
>   - Even if you get and read documents related to the sale
> of mineral  
> rights, you may not know what they mean.  There are
> "terms of the art"  
> in that field that do not mean what  you would expect.
>   - The mineral rights to your land may have been sold a
> long time ago
>   - If so, you *should* have been told of that event when
> you bought  
> your place
>   - Mineral rights can be un-excercised for decades, and
> then one day  
> BOOM, you've got large equipment and/or dynamite
> charges going off in  
> your pastures.
>   - most oil/mineral companies are big conglomerates now,
> and are  
> particularly un-interested in the land owners point of
> view.
>   - people and equipment which are the earliest hint of new
>  
> prospecting are most likely sub- or sub-sub- contractors of
> the rights  
> owner, and are from places very far away.  Those folks care
> even less  
> about the landowners' point of view.
> 
> I sincerely hope none of this applies to you.
> 
> Roy Morgan
> k1lky AT earthlink.net
> Lovettsville, VA 20180
> 
> 
> 
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