[1] Common land ownership can be organized into a partition unit, a corporation consisting of the landowners on the shore that formally owns the water area and determines its use.
The water cannot be transferred out of the watershed without due consideration as to the rights of the downstream riparian landowners.
Duties arising from the model include the following: The United States recognizes two types of water rights.
It is not "owned" by the government, state or private individual but is rather included as part of the land over which it falls from the sky or then travels along the surface.
The states retain the power of defining the scope of the public trust over navigable waters.
[9] Federal courts have long recognized that state laws establish the extent of the riparian and public right.
Lands between the high and low water marks on navigable rivers are subject to the police powers of the states.
[14] However, during the territorial period, the United States could convey certain of these lands under the limited circumstances of promoting commerce.