Under groundwater allocation, what term describes the rights of users to groundwater based on proportion?

• A. Prior appropriation
• B. Correlative rights
• C. Beneficial use
• D. Escheat rights

Answer: (B)

Correlative rights describe the shared, proportion-based allocation of groundwater among owners in the same basin. In this system, each user has a proportional share of the water, and withdrawals must stay within that portion to protect others’ rights. This stands in contrast to a priority-based approach, where earlier withdrawals dominate regardless of proportional shares, and to concepts like beneficial use, which governs whether a use is legitimate rather than how rights are divided. Escheat rights aren’t about groundwater sharing at all. So the term that matches “rights of users to groundwater based on proportion” is correlative rights.