The Relationship Between Regulatory Water Resource Protections and Common Law Property Rights in South Carolina

Water resource owners are protected both by (a) regulatory restrictions on the discharge of pollut-ants and (b) common law property rights (e.g., rights enforceable through trespass and nuisance lawsuits). A common misperception is that regulatory com-pliance constitutes a legal safe harbor against liability for violations of common law rights in water resources. However, as illustrated on the main graph (left), common law property rights provide protection over and above minimum regulatory re-strictions of pollutant discharges. The degree of this additional protection varies across different catego-ries of polluting activities.