Water Rights...

[santahog]

Mineral rights here in AL were teased out years ago by quietly reverting back to the State unless the last owner (of mineral rights) included with deed upon sale. I checked when I bought back here. They can be had here, (purchased back from the State) but it will cost you..
You can dig a pond here as big as you want, but I think they want a permit. They're more interested in what you put into a pond than what you pump out..
As for pumping the aquifer out for commercial use, (like Poland Springs in Maine) I don't know. I think it could be done, quietly, on a small scale at first, only because Al. is pretty business friendly.
Generating electricity? Probably not.. The TVA doesn't like competition..
I really don't think one would have trouble with a cistern here, as big as one could make it on, a residential level.
The price of municipal water has doubled here like every place else east of Kansas in the last few years..  

[santahog]

... My Dads friend told him to get the states water the hell off his land or he was going to sue them for interfering with his gravel business.
That was another problem that went away. 

That is clever.. This is why I love old people!!! This sounds just like something my grandfather would say/do.. He was Chief Engineer at Goodyear here. (He was a bootlegger too, but that's another story..)

[TAB]

Tom out west almost all of the mineral rights have long been snatched up.   some to oil, some to mining companys and the rest too.... The rail roads which was basicly the .gov back then.

[tombogan03884]

Here if you dig a pond you get a good sized break on your fire insurance.

Tom out west almost all of the mineral rights have long been snatched up.   some to oil, some to mining companys and the rest too.... The rail roads which was basicly the .gov back then.

I know, that was the draw back to the "Free land".
That was ALL you got, the land, nothing over, under, or passing through.