Comment by ChadNauseam

3 hours ago

Can you explain the issue from a more basic level for people who don’t know? what i’m imagining is that, like, an aquifer might connect over a very large area and every property owner in the area has the right to extract as much water as they want from it? Leading to a tragedy of the commons situation that states are unable to regulate for some reason?

Short answer: it's complicated. A somewhat longer answer: "Cadillac Desert". Marc Reisner. 1986.