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, "') (Hi.1 .j Summary CURRENT SITUATION Source 01 Conflict Nebraska is one of several western states having two inconsistent legal bases for alloca- ting surface water rights: riparian and appropri- ative. Riparian rights to use surface water are based exclusively on owning land bordering a stream. Appropriative rights to use surface water are acquired by obtaining a state permit and using streamflow for a beneficial purpose. The riparian doctrine was adopted in Nebraska by Nebraska Supreme Court decision, while prior appropriation was later established by legisla- tion. The existence of two inconsistent legal bases for allocating surface water rights has resulted in conflicts among riparians and appropriators. Early Nebraska Supreme Court decisions re- solving these conflicts limited a riparian's legal remedy to money damages when the exercise of an appropriation by a public entity conflicted with enjoyment of a private riparian right. These court decisions led to the widely accepted conclusion that the conflict among riparians and appropri- ators had been definitively resolved judicially in favor of the appropriators. Two recent Nebraska Supreme Court decisions involving irrigation- stockwatering disputes, however, suggest that rights of private appropriators and private ripar- ians would be balanced on an equal basis, and that in some circumstances a riparian would be able to enjoin through court order the exercise of an appropriation. This judicial reevaluation of the relative rights of riparians and appropriators has led to recommendations that riparian rights be integrated into the appropriative system. Nebraska Law The following propositions summarize the current law in Nebraska for resolving riparian- appropriative conflicts. 1. Riparians are entitled to only nominal damages for appropriative interference with vested dormant riparian rights. 2. Riparians are only entitled to damages when a "public" appropriator interferes with a non- domestic riparian use if the riparian use was initiated first. 3. "Public" appropriators are entitled to enjoin non~domestic riparian interference with appro- priative uses if the appropriative use was in- itiated first. 4. Conflicts between private appropriators and riparians will be resolved by balancing the equities. The major factors to be considered are (') the local water supply conditions. (2) the relative priority dates of the parties (where the riparian priority date is the date of initial use), and (3) the relative social utility of the appropriative and riparian water uses. 5. Private individual domestic uses may be entitled to injunctive relief where appropriators interfere with domestic uses even in the absence of legal riparian status. Need to Examine Policy Alternatives Future riparian-appropriative conflicts are most likely to arise in two situations: irrigation- stock watering conflicts and conflicts involving "extra-preference" uses (i.e. surface water uses nol enumerated in the water preferences provisions, such as induced groundwater reo charge, municipal, fish and wildlife maintenance and recreation). The practical effects of riparian rights in Nebraska has been limited in the past to the livestock-irrigation conflicts on Hat Creek. The probability of such litigation in the future seems limited. If it does occur, such litigation is likely to have only a limited local impact. Utiga. tion involving extra-preference water uses is probable, however. The presence of riparian rights may not be a significant factor in such litigation because such litigation has occurred in the past without invoking riparian rights. The greatest practical significance of riparian rights v