Businesses, agriculture clients, and municipalities need to understand and manage their rights to use water. This is especially true in the Western United States, where clients must balance future needs with changing laws and court decisions.

Clients seek out Geosyntec to assess risks, manage compliance, and consult on water-resource reliability. On their behalf, we conduct confidential water-right assessments and property due diligence, support adjudication, and handle permitting with an eye to state-specific physical and legal water availability challenges.

Our team includes hydrogeologists, water-resources engineers, water-rights specialists, former agency staff, federal and state environmental permitting veterans, and Certified Water Rights Examiners (CWREs). Our water rights practitioners work across the western United States, with experts in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, California, Idaho, and Montana.

Protect your rights to water.

Clients must actively manage their water rights to avoid losing them. Our specialists use confidential water-right assessments that consider water law, hydrogeologic conditions, site history, and regulations to help clients better understand the merits and risks of their portfolios. Together, we plan how to safeguard their portfolios, address changes in regulations, develop new sources, plan smart mitigation, and supplement gaps in authority or supply with targeted acquisitions.

Add water rights and supply to your property due diligence.

Geosyntec works on behalf of buyers and sellers to assess water-right authority, curtailment risk, and compliance risks, including overuse and use outside authorizations. With our support, clients address physical supply risks, including declining groundwater, climate change, and drought, as well as title and ownership challenges, including shared rights, source-sharing agreements, and encroachment.

Benefit from state and federal adjudications.

Adjudication is a quiet title action that evaluates water rights in an area, offering risk and reward for water-right holders. On the risk side, adjudications expose shortfalls between water-right authority and use, which must be addressed through land-use changes, water-right acquisitions, and mitigation. On the reward side, adjudications confirm seniority of priority date and make surplus water more portable and ready for sale or lease. Clients facing adjudication value us as expert witnesses, trust our confidential assessments, and know we work closely with water attorneys to maximize water-right authority.

Buy, sell, lease, and bank water.

Both buyers and sellers engage Geosyntec to maximize their return on investment during water-right transactions. Whether supporting small domestic development acquisitions or large agricultural transactions, we negotiate purchase and sale agreements, offer valuation opinions, and support closing and permitting of sales. We also establish and operate water banks that transaction hundreds of decisions, and we handle the reporting. Once the transaction is complete, our practitioners can help develop the next phase of the project.

Contact us to get started.

In Washington, reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Jill Van Hulle.
In Oregon, reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
In Alaska, reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
In California, reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
In Idaho, reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
In Montana, reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..