Private Property vs. Public Access: Managing Non-Meandering Waters in South Dakota's Prairie Pothole Region

Updated August 22, 2025
Professional portrait of Sushant Mehan

Sushant Mehan

Assistant Professor and SDSU Extension Water Resource Engineer Specialist

Written collaboratively by Sushant Mehan, Lydia Loken and Todd Trooien

The management of South Dakota’s non-meandering waters is not just a legal dilemma—it is a social, environmental, and economic challenge with implications that ripple across the state. As flooding continues to impact more private land and water quality concerns grow, proactive legal reform and strategic socio-engineering solutions could offer critical relief. Through legal clarity, beneficial use reclassification, commercialization, and enhanced monitoring infrastructure, South Dakota has the potential to pave the way toward a more sustainable and equitable approach to surface water governance.

Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported partially by the U.S. Geological Survey under Grant/Cooperative Agreement No. G24AS00537 and SDSU Extension Seed Grant.

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