Allocation of Streams for Municipal Water Supply

Chapter II of the Manual "Water Works Practice" issued by the American Water Works Association, begins by stating "The need for allocation arises when two or more users compete for the same water or for the channel of a stream." In the past, this need has raised many perplexing questions for law and practice between individuals, states and nations. The basic principle of civilization is the necessity for individuals, states and nations to dwell together in harmony, and law, in its last analysis, is but a means to that end. Common and statute law regulate use of water courses between individuals of a state or nation and internation law, so-called, regulates or at least indicates procedure between separate states or nations. For controversies between individuals of the same state, the courts of law of the state provide redress or at least decide between conflicting claims. Between nations, treaty or war settles disputes. In the United States, a complex situation arises because the states are separate sovereignties, except so far as they delegated their powers to a federal government by ratification of the Constitution of the United States. For individuals in the same state, the old English doctrine of riparian rights holds, except so far as statute law or easement acquired by prescription has intervened. It is said that necessity knows no law, which is but another way of saying that those things which are essential to life take precedence over those matters which are of lesser importance. What may be the distinction in gradation from a necessity of life to a desirability of pleasure, is a matter for dispute and argument to be settled by