Water on and under your land

Missouri is a water-rich, eastern-rules state — not the dry West, where it's 'first in time, first in right.' For surface water tied to land along a stream or lake, Missouri follows RIPARIAN rights: reasonable use of the water. For groundwater, Missouri applies REASONABLE-USE principles too — but don't call groundwater rights 'riparian'; that's a different doctrine. The theme is reasonable use, not unlimited ownership.

Separate rules and permits can apply to water EXPORTS, wells, dams, wastewater, wetlands, floodplains, and construction or land disturbance — so 'no quantity permit' is far from 'no permits.'

For stormwater runoff between neighbors, Missouri uses the 'modified common enemy / reasonable use' rule (Heins Implement v. Missouri Highway & Transportation Commission, 1992): you can manage water on your own land, but you can't unreasonably harm your neighbor by sending it their way.

Wells: a paid driller or pump installer must hold a DNR permit. A landowner may be allowed to self-install a well on their OWN property (and may be exempt from the contractor permit), but the well still has to meet DNR construction, reporting, and plugging rules.

A pond entirely on your own parcel MAY be privately owned — but building, enlarging, draining, or discharging from one can trigger dam-safety, drainage, wetland, floodplain, land-disturbance (one acre or more, including a smaller site that's part of a larger common plan), or local permit rules. Check before you dig.

On the big reservoirs the rules belong to whoever holds the license: the Lake of the Ozarks shoreline is governed by Ameren under a federal license, while Table Rock, Truman, Stockton, and similar lakes are U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects (see the Boating hub).

Whether you can float, wade, or fish a stream that runs through private land is a navigability and stream-access question — see the Rivers & Tubing and Fishing hubs.