2016 Oklahoma Statutes
Title 82. Waters and Water Rights
§82-105.2. Right to use water - Domestic use - Priorities.

A. Beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure and the limit of the right to the use of water; provided, that water taken for domestic use shall not be subject to the provisions of this act, except as provided in Section 105.5 of this title. Any person has the right to take water for domestic use from a stream to which he is riparian or to take stream water for domestic use from wells on his premises. Water for domestic use may be stored in an amount not to exceed two (2) years' supply. The provisions of this act shall not apply to farm ponds or gully plugs which are not located on definite streams and which have been constructed under the supervision and specifications of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

B. Priority in time shall give the better right. From and after the date of June 10, 1963, the following priorities for the use of water and no other shall exist:

1. Prestatehood uses. Priorities to the quantity of water put to beneficial use prior to November 15, 1907, to the extent to which the priority has not been lost in whole or in part pursuant to Section 105.16 of this title when the same shall have been perfected as provided by this act and rules and regulations adopted by the Board. Such said priorities shall date from the initiation of the beneficial use.

2. Spavinaw, Grand, North Canadian, Blue and North Boggy adjudications. Priorities decreed to exist in adjudications brought in pursuance of this act where such adjudications have been initiated prior to the date of June 10, 1963, to the extent to which these priorities have not been lost in whole or in part pursuant to Section 105.16 of this title. Such said priorities shall be dated as of the date assigned to them in the respective adjudication decrees.

3. Spavinaw, Grand, North Canadian, Blue and North Boggy Rivers - Applications prior to June 10, 1963. Priorities based upon applications for appropriations where the same shall have been perfected heretofore under the law heretofore applicable to the extent to which the priority has not been lost in whole or in part pursuant to Section 105.16 of this title. Such said priorities shall be dated as of the date of the application therefor.

4. All other applications. Priorities based upon applications for appropriations to the extent the priority has not been lost in whole or in part pursuant to Section 105.16 of this title where the same shall be perfected after June 10, 1963, as provided by this act and rules and regulations adopted by the Board pursuant thereto. Such said priorities shall date from the date of application for the priority. Any permit to appropriate water issued by the Board from and after June 10, 1963, is hereby presumed to be valid and in full force and effect to the extent not lost in whole or in part due to nonuse, forfeiture or abandonment, pursuant to this title.

5. Federal withdrawals. Priorities based on the withdrawal of water by the United States pursuant to Section 105.29 of this title to the extent to which the priority has not been lost in whole or in part through nonutilization as provided by the said section or pursuant to Section 105.16 of this title. Such said priorities shall vest in the users of said water as of the date of notification given pursuant to Section 105.29 of this title.

6. Poststatehood - Nonapplicant uses. Priorities based upon present beneficial use prior to June 10, 1963, and initiated on or subsequent to November 15, 1907, to the extent to which the priority has not been lost in whole or in part pursuant to Section 105.16 of this title where the same has been perfected as provided by this act and rules and regulations adopted by the Board pursuant thereto. Such said priorities as to each quantity of water shall date from the initiation of the beneficial use of that quantity of water. Provided, however, that no priority based solely upon this paragraph shall take priority over priorities which bear a priority date earlier than the effective date of June 10, 1963, and which arise by virtue of compliance with the provisions of the first five paragraphs of this subsection.

7. Soil Conservation Service sediment pools. Priorities based upon beneficial use of that portion of the water designated by the Soil Conservation Service engineers as necessary for the sediment pool where landowners have granted easements without compensation for upstream flood control impoundments under the sponsorship of Soil and Water Conservation Districts prior to June 10, 1963, to the extent to which the priority has not been lost in whole or in part pursuant to Section 105.16 of this title when the same shall have been perfected as provided by this act and rules and regulations adopted by the Board. Such said priorities shall date from the date of the grant of the easement. Subsequent to June 10, 1963, those landowners who shall grant easements for such upstream flood control impoundments may acquire a priority for beneficial use of that water designated as the sediment pool by complying with paragraph 4 of subsection B of this section.

C. When any person might claim a priority under more than one of the numbered paragraphs of subsection B of this section, he may elect which paragraphs shall control his priority date. Nothing in this provision shall be construed to prohibit his electing different priorities under one or more of the paragraphs of subsection B of this section for different quantities of water.

D. From and after June 10, 1963, the only riparian rights to the use of water in a definite stream, except water taken for domestic use, are those which have been adjudicated and recognized as vested through the proceedings under 82 O.S. Supp. 1963, Sections 5 and 6, orders of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board entered thereunder which became final, and those decreed to exist in the Spavinaw, Grand, North Canadian, and Blue and North Boggy adjudications, all to the extent such rights have not been lost, in whole or in part, due to nonuse, forfeiture or abandonment, pursuant to this title.

Amended by Laws 1988, c. 203, § 2, emerg. eff. June 10, 1988.