S.D. Codified Laws § 46-2A-16

This is the official text of S.D. Codified Laws § 46-2A-16, part of South Dakota’s Codified Laws — part of the compiled statutory law of South Dakota, published by the state as "Codified Laws." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Validation of vested water right claim--Notice

Official statutory text

Any claim for vested rights as defined in § 46-1-9 or 46-6-1 that has been accepted for filing by the chief engineer or Board of Water Management, prior to July 1, 1986, is eligible for validation. The chief engineer shall prepare a list based on the point of diversion of these vested rights on a county - by - county basis. By July 31, 1988, the chief engineer shall cause to be published once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in each county a notice of these vested rights in the county in which the notice is published. The notice shall include the following:

(1) The name and address of these vested right holders;

(2) The legal description of the diversion points and, if the water is used for irrigation purposes, the legal description of the land on which the water has been used;

(3) The source of water;

(4) A statement that any person who wishes to oppose validation of any such vested right shall, within ninety days of the date of the last publication, file a petition of intent to oppose the validation with the department and with the vested right holder; and

(5) A statement that any interested person may obtain a copy of the chief engineer's vested right list for other counties from the department.

A copy of each notice published in a county shall be mailed by the chief engineer by first class mail to all known water right or water permit holders in that county. No hearing may be scheduled unless a petition of intent to oppose is filed.

Source: SL 1986, ch 363, § 1.

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.