Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

The discussion on the California Environmental Protection Agency's web site at http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/waterrights/board_info/water_rights_process.shtml gives you about as good a discussion of the topic as any lawyer could, especially within the confines of a bulletin board.

Note that riparian rights run with the land, and are transferred to the new owner upon sale, except that when property is subdivided, new parcels not lying directly on the body of water will probably lose their riparian rights unless an appropriate easement is reserved.

A riparian right is the right of an owner of land adjoining a body of water to take a reasonable amount of the water for useful purposes. The use must be more or less immediate, and local on the land. The landowner cannot take water to store in a reservoir for use in the dry season, nor pipe it off the property enjoying the riparian right.

To determine the existence, nature and extent of your riparian rights, I'd do the following: (1) look at you deed and your title policy. (2) Look at your parcel map and assure that your property lies along some stream, river or lake. (3) Consider whether prior owners were taking water from that lake or river, how much, and for what purpose. Then (4) contact a local water agency or the California EPA's Division of Water Rights to get a staff opinion. If all this isn't sufficient, retain a local lawyer with water rights experience.