Ground‐Water‐Management Areas in United States

Abstract

Laws governing ground‐water withdrawals have been adjusted to reflect the desire and need to prevent resource depletion and conflict among users. Courts today are inclined to regard ground water more as a shared public resource that is subject to management and regulation than as private property with rights of unlimited use. Also, state legislatures are passing comprehensive ground‐water‐management statutes to prevent depletion and conflict and to reduce historic reliance on the courts to settle ground‐water disputes. This has been called a “management doctrine” for ground water. One example of the management doctrine is the use of ground‐water‐management areas to regulate regional ground‐water withdrawals when and where that is necessary. This paper summarizes the results of a nationwide survey to collect information about the nature and distribution of ground‐water‐management‐area programs around the country. Results show that 27 states allow for formation of special management areas to address some type of ground‐water‐quantity problem; some areas also address ground‐water‐quality problems. This paper describes some of the common aspects of management‐area programs. One distinction of interest is that while most states place the responsibility of controlling management areas with some central state agency, several states have opted to leave that responsibility with the local ground‐water users. The heavily irrigated states of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas stand out in this regard.