
Who owns water? The US landowners putting barbed wire across rivers - sverige
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/15/privatized-rivers-us-public-lands-waterways
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eesmith
New Mexico has a long history of landowners screwing others over water rights.

John Nichols' New Mexico Trilogy ("The Milagro Beanfield War" is the first and
best known book) covers some of the problems.

In addition to the premise for that story, another example was water rights by
seniority, but they depend on the fields being in use. But when men are
conscripted to fight in WWII, they can't plant, so they lose their water
rights. While the rich (and Anglo) landowners can hire people to make sure
they maintain their rights.

There are other examples in the series.

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shaki-dora
I’m pretty sure this was the exact example of “rent-seeking” in my economics
textbook.

