On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 13:48:56 GMT, Larry Weiss
wrote:

"Rosalie B." wrote:

x-no-archive:yes

Larry Weiss wrote:

I understand that it is against maritime law to restrict or prohibit
waterway access. Anyone know if this is true and/or what the law
actually says, and where it may be found?

Larry Weiss
"...Ever After!"
"a little after..."

I think this depends a lot on where it is you are talking about. For
one thing, what country? And why would you think maritime law had
jurisdiction? I would have thought that ordinary laws applied in most
inland or near coastal waters.

We are talking about the US of A, New York State in particular, and
maritime law only because that's where my poor memory recalls it may have
existed.

Basically we are talking about a local town public park and marina on the
waterfront. The park is supposed to be for use by town residents only
(the park land was donated to the town in 1942 by descendants of Teddy
Roosevelt and that strict covenant is in the deed). Over the last few
years, the town has stopped enforcing this restriction. Officials claim
it is because of a law, which they are unable to cite, which states that
they can not restrict access to the water. I believe they may be
misinterpreting a law meant to prohibit restricting a boat's access to
waterways from the water (which I recall hearing about somewhere), rather
than a person's access to the water from land. Nobody on either side
seems to be able to cite any law from either perspective. I'm just
looking for something official to cite, one way or the other.

We have a similar problem locally. There is a lake/pond in town that
is owned by the town along with the adjoining land, but an adajacent
town owns the water rights, thus basically owning the lake/pond. No
boats, no fishing, no nuttin'. Can't remove weeds, can't do anyting
to improve the habitat because it will affect the water supply. The
dimwit that runs the water works never even graduated high school,
doesn't understand the nature of the problem and won't do anything
about it other than do nothing. It is very frustrating because the
local sportsmen have put up a lot of money to hire an attorney for the
town, but the town doesn't want to challange the neighbors on the
matter and the town attorney has stated that private monies in this
matter are illegal...it's just a freakin' mess.

Engineers were hired to do a study, create an action plan and, in
theory, IMPROVE the quality of the water delivered to the pumping
station, but when the plan was presented to the appropriate boards,
our friend rejected it out of hand because he couldn't understand how
sediment settling basins before the water intakes worked - once the
water is dirty, it's dirty according to him.

Meanwhile, all this haggling isn't getting the lake/pond any better.

Idiots.

Sorry for the rant.

Later,

Tom
S. Woodstock, CT
----------

"I thought I'd just go fishin', but the fish
were not amused. And I caught myself just
wishin' that I was in the fishes shoes. Just
swimmin' in some deep blue water not a care
in my head, watchin' some fool with a line
and a pole hidin' by the riverbed."

Joe Ely, "Back To My Old Molehill" - "Flatlanders,
Wheels of Fortune - 2004"