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Cal. WAT § 1227

This is the official text of Cal. WAT § 1227, part of California’s Water Code — governs water rights and water resource management.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the public interest to provide a priority of right to appropriate water for various beneficial water uses which were initiated by the United States, or its agencies, on reserved lands prior to July 3, 1978, and which uses are for secondary purposes, other than those for which the federal reservation was created, provided that the priority of right does not impair any existing water right.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.