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Permalink Reply by dbob on May 2, 2011 at 15:06

Max

 

In short, I think water could be sold without you being involved in the sale.  That said, if the pond is on your property, they would still have to cross your property and obtain an agreement to do so.  Also, if the pond is on channel, your traditional water rights might apply - so even if you couldn't sell that water, you would be entitled to some use of it.  

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Max on May 3, 2011 at 9:14

I haven't found anything yet, but with the cost of water for fracking wells, the State may want to get into the action if they have a legal right to the water.

 

Some of the ponds show up on the 1998 view, so they've been around for awhile. 

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Permalink Reply by BirdDawg, plain ole' idiot on May 3, 2011 at 15:42

Max,

My opinion is that state owned water bottoms and private ponds are two entirely different things.

Just my opinion. But I am quite aware of state owned water bottoms. And generally ponds (and the water contained within them) built by private individuals on their own property, if not damming up state owned water bottoms, are probably owned by the landowner. I am speaking only about Louisiana. Just my opinion, which is not worth much.

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Permalink Reply by Max on May 4, 2011 at 5:01

I guess if  the O&G company didn't research the water rights, you could make a deal. 

 

It would be up to them to do the research and I've haven't seen any recorded records at the courthouse about water rights in ponds, so how deep will they dig and where would they do that digging?

 

I'm sure though, if you did sell water and the State ended up claiming it, you would have to pay any monies you received back to the state.  I think the only way the State would find out would be if you called the right agency and asked too many questions, or if the State linked up taxes paid to them from the source of income.

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by dbob on May 4, 2011 at 5:17

Max,

There has been some discussion of this topic through a couple of webinars on the Wright Water Resources page. I suggest you start there. Regarding state water, a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEA) can be used to obtain that water in a manner consistent with the AG opinion. I suspect one could charge for storage of and access to the state water....

Currently, in Louisiana, to my knowledge, the state is not looking into people selling water from ponds, with the exception of those using unregistered or improperly registered groundwater wells to fill the ponds.

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