Hutchins, Wells A., Harold H. Ellis and J. Peter DeBraal. Water Rights Laws in the Nineteen Western States. [Washington, D.C.]: United States Department of Agriculture. [1971]. Three volumes. Reprint available July 2004 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-414-2. Cloth. $350. * Rights to the use of water from surface and underground sources are often crucial in the seventeen contiguous Western states, Alaska and Hawaii. This work offers a comparative analysis of the development and status of the constitutional provisions, statutes, reported court decisions and administrative regulations, practices and policies regarding water rights laws in these states. The analysis considers the nature of these water rights and their acquisition, control, transfer, protection and loss. Federal, interstate and international matters are also discussed.

Groundwater in the West covers the use, management, laws, and politics of groundwater in the West. The first chapter provides an overview of important groundwater management and policy issues. Each of the subsequent chapters presents a brief description of the water environment in each of the 19 states and the major groundwater regions in the state. These chapters provide a summary of ground water use and consumption by type of consumption, an examination of groundwater problems in the state, and a summary of groundwater law, administration, and regulations. The chapters conclude with a section summarizing groundwater politics (where appropriate) and an evaluation of future potential groundwater management problems. Hydrologists and people involved in groundwater use, control, and management will find the book invaluable.

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