Title 30 — Mineral Lands and MiningRelease 119-73not60
§51 Water Users’ Vested and Accrued Rights; Enumeration of Uses; Protection of Interest; Rights-of-way for Canals and Ditches; Liability for Injury or Damage to Settlers’ Possession
Title 30 › Chapter 2— MINERAL LANDS AND REGULATIONS IN GENERAL › § 51
Summary
Protects water-use rights people gained by being first to use water for mining, farming, manufacturing, or similar purposes when local customs, laws, or courts accept them. Confirms the right to build ditches and canals for those uses. If building a ditch or canal damages a settler’s possession on public land, the builder must pay.
Full Legal Text
Title 30, §51
Mineral Lands and Mining — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right-of-way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged and confirmed; but whenever any person, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injures or damages the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.11 See Repeal; Savings Provision note below.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification R.S. § 2339 derived from act July 26, 1866, ch. 262, § 9, 14 Stat. 253. Section is also set out as the first par. of section 661 of Title 43, Public Lands.
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Repeal;
Savings Provision
Provision of this section, “and the right-of-way for the
Construction
of ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged and confirmed; but whenever any person, in the
Construction
of any ditch or canal, injures or damages the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.” was repealed by Pub. L. 94–579, title VII, § 706(a), Oct. 21, 1976, 90 Stat. 2793, effective on and after Oct. 21, 1976, insofar as applicable to the issuance of rights-of-way over, upon, under, and through the public lands and lands in the National Forest System. Such repeal not to be construed as terminating any valid lease, permit, patent, etc., existing on Oct. 21, 1976, see section 701 of Pub. L. 94–579, set out as a note under section 1701 of Title 43, Public Lands. Submerged Lands ActProvisions of this section as not amended, modified or repealed by the Submerged Lands Act, see section 1303 of Title 43, Public Lands.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
30 U.S.C. § 51
Title 30 — Mineral Lands and Mining
Last Updated
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60