Question: How is the best way to convey water?
Answer: In the REPC section 1.4 Water Service. The Purchase Price for the Property shall include all water rights/water shares, if any, that are the legal source for Seller’s current culinary water service and irrigation water service, if any, to the Property. The water rights/water shares will be conveyed or otherwise transferred to Buyer at Closing by applicable deed or legal instruments. The following water rights/water shares, if applicable, are specifically excluded from this sale: Note: There is a big difference between a Water Right and Water Shares. Water shares generally are shares you would receive from an irrigation company. This would enable one to use a certain amount of water from a private water source or company.
The Utah Division of Water Rights administers the appropriation and distribution of the state’s valuable water resources, both surface and underground. It is an office of public record for information pertaining to water rights, excepting that related to water right ownership. All official publicly accessible water right records are available in the Salt Lake City office, or from the Water Rights website. Regional offices outside of Salt Lake City will also have copies of most records for the areas they administer. A Water right number is given to a Water right owner. Depending on when the water right was issued, a priority is established That Water right user may have a higher priority right than someone else in that Water shed area. The Water right would contain an amount of “Acre Feet” of water. This is the amount of water required to irrigate an acre of land with a foot of water. It is a misnomer that 1 acre ft. of a water right would be enough to irrigate 1 acre of land. There are different duties on water depending on the area that a holder of a Water right is located. Duty and Delta are very basic definitions used in the calculation of irrigation water demand of the crops. To put it simple, Duty is the area of land that can be irrigated with a unit volume of water supplied across the base period where as delta is the depth of water required to raise a crop over a unit area. So some areas of Utah, the duties on water can vary between 3 (lower elevations) and 6 (Higher elevations). For instance if you have 10 acres and the duty on your water is 5, you may need 50 acre feet of water to irrigate your 10 acres. The value of your Water Right varies depending on what area or water shed your water right is in. Water Rights can be sold or traded for other areas in the State. Water rights may also be moved from a point of diversion to another area, if it’s in the same Watershed. As you can see, water is a very complicated issue. Many an argument over History has been over Water issues. If you need help with a water issue, get advice from a water professional.