Comparing the Regulated Riparian and Appropriative Rights Model Water Codes

The American Society of Civil Engineers launched the Model Water Code Project in 1990 under the leadership of Ray Jay Davis. I took over direction of the project in 1995 after Professor Davis retired. We have now completed the Regulated Riparian Model Water Code, which is standard 40-03 of the Society. The Appropriative Rights Model Water Code has been completed as a report of the Laws and Institutions Committee of Environmental and Water Resources Institute, with balloting on it as a standard about to begin. While efforts were made to make the provisions of the two model codes the same insofar as possible, the two model codes represent the two very different regulatory approaches to water management issues now prevalent in the United States. A close comparison of the two model codes thus serves as an introduction to the provisions of the codes and serves to introduce the major legal issues regarding water management and possible legal responses to those water management issues. This paper will be the first such comparison since the completion of the report version of the Appropriative Rights Model Water Code.