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Lu," ii water clearly is related to the character of the overlying land. Since agriculture is by lar the most important userol groundwater in Nebraska, looking to the character of the land in allocating irrigation rights arguably is beneficial. The level of water use that would be reasonable in relation to the character of the overlying land is. however. a matter thaI varies over time as economic conditions and technology change. Implementing this alternative would require determining the boundaries of underlying aquifers. the Quantity of water in storage. and whether the aquifer should be mined or sustain- ed at a particular level. In addition. overlying land would have to be classified by productivity and a determination made as to the relative amount of available water in storage that would be assigned to each productivity class. The major effect of this alternative would be to give property rights in groundwater to owners of overlying "irrigable" land instead of vesting the rights in owners of overlying land. Socio-Economic Impacts In general. the efficiency impacts of this altern- ative would be the same as for the previous alternative with one exception. Allocating water on the basis 01 productive land rather than on the basis of the overlying land would result in larger allocations to those most likely to use the water. Since water users would then have less need to contract with others for water, transaction costs would be reduced and the prospects for achieving efficiency, enhanced. The major economic difference between this alternative, and the previous one, however, is equitable. Under this alternative. owners of productive land would gain the benefit of the economic rent of water instead 01 sharing that resource value more broadly. Physical-Hydrologic and Environmental Impacts The physical-hydrologic and environmental impacts for this alternative would be the same as for the previOUS alternative. Quantification offers a potential to minimize adverse impacts but it would require hydrologic data not currently available. Alternative #13: Codify the rules derived from Nebraska cases, as near as they can be determined, as the definition of groundwater property rights in Nebraska. Description and Methods of Implementation Nebraska groundwater property rights were analyzed extensively in Chapter One and that analysis will not be repeated here.48 Existing case law rather clearly indicates that ground- water in Nebraska is publiC property subject to a private right of capture. Consequently, with the possible exception of a "public trust" type limita- tion, the state has wide latitude in allocating rights. Lacking express direction from the legis- lature prior to the adoption of LB 375,49 however, the Nebraska Supreme Court evolved a body of law which permits private capture and use of groundwater without. necessaiily, creating a private property right in a particular method of capture or Quantity of water captured. This al- ternative would take what is probably no more than a permissive license to use groundwater, and statutorily transform that license into what could be a vested property right to the benefit of overlying landowners. It must, of course. be cautioned that vesting property rights in private hands necessarily reduces future flexibility of state action in meeting future water problems since any future action would be limited by the "takings" clauses of state and federal constitutions. Although existing Nebraskacase and statutory taw concerning groundwater property rights are not fully consistent, certain principles can be deduced. The enactment of LB37550 in the 1982 session of lhe legislature may, in fact, have already established many of these principles through rather general language. This alternative seeks a greater degree of detail and accom- plishes that goal. more or less, by specifying the known or assumed effects of the Nebraska Rule of Reasonable Use. rather then by stating the rule itself. The following statutory formulation is intended to be a permanent codification of those effects. many of of which could be changed or defined without significant constitutional con- straint. Where Nebraska law does not provide guidance. a rule is included based on the de- velopment of similar rules in other states. This hypothetical set of rules, all of which would be subject to other legislation now or later enacted, reads as foHows: 1) Groundwater in place beneath the suriace of the earth is hereby declared to be, and to always have been, property of the people of the State of Nebraska, and such waler is held in trust for the benefit of the people of the state. 2) Except as may otherwise be provided by the Legislature. overlying landowners have an equal right to capture and use a 3.17