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Cal. WAT § 520

This is the official text of Cal. WAT § 520, 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 hereby finds and declares that, pursuant to the primary interest of the people of the state to put the limited available supplies of water in this state to beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are capable, and to prevent waste, unreasonable use, or unreasonable method of use, it is necessary to determine the quantities of water in use throughout the state to the maximum extent that is reasonable to do so.

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.