Water And Land Part 1

Water and Land

Two recent cases, State of North Carolina v. Alcoa Power Generating, Inc., 5:13-CV-00633 (E.D.N.C.) (September 28, 2015) and Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle,  __ N.C. App. ___ (November 17, 2015) address ownership of riverbeds and ocean beaches.  These are complicated and increasingly important issues and lead to a two-part blog entitled Water and Land.

Part 1 – "Who Owns a Riverbed?"

A person looking at a North Carolina Transportation Map finds that the water flowing into High Rock Lake is labeled "Yadkin River" and might assume that the State of North Carolina owns the Yadkin River bed within the Lake.  But the assumption would be mistaken.   

In State of North Carolina v. Alcoa Power Generating, Inc., (September 28, 2015), the United States District Court  for the Eastern District of North Carolina considered whether the State of North Carolina or Alcoa owned the forty-five mile long segment of the Yadkin River roughly beginning at High Rock