It is hereby declared that the protection of the public interest in the development of the water resources of the state is of vital concern to the people of the state and that the state shall determine in what way the water of the state, both surface and underground, should be developed for the greatest public benefit.
S.D. Codified Laws § 46-1-2
Development of water resources for public benefit
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Parks v. Cooper (2004)
Most recently applied in Duerre v. Hepler (March 2017)
Source: SL 1955, ch 430, § 1; SDC Supp 1960, § 61.0101 (4); SL 1972, ch 237, § 1; SL 1978, ch 323, § 1.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.