43 USC § 383 - Vested rights and State laws unaffected

---
identifier: "/us/usc/t43/s383"
source: "usc"
legal_status: "official_prima_facie"
title: "43 USC § 383 - Vested rights and State laws unaffected"
title_number: 43
title_name: "PUBLIC LANDS"
section_number: "383"
section_name: "Vested rights and State laws unaffected"
chapter_number: 12
chapter_name: "RECLAMATION AND IRRIGATION OF LANDS BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT"
subchapter_number: "I"
subchapter_name: "GENERAL PROVISIONS"
positive_law: false
currency: "119-84"
last_updated: "2026-04-17"
format_version: "1.1.0"
generator: "[email protected]"
source_credit: "(June 17, 1902, ch. 1093, § 8, 32 Stat. 390.)"
---


# § 383. Vested rights and State laws unaffected

Nothing in this Act shall be construed as affecting or intended to affect or to in any way interfere with the laws of any State or Territory relating to the control, appropriation, use, or distribution of water used in irrigation, or any vested right acquired thereunder, and the Secretary of the Interior, in carrying out the provisions of this Act, shall proceed in conformity with such laws, and nothing herein shall in any way affect any right of any State or of the Federal Government or of any landowner, appropriator, or user of water in, to, or from any interstate stream or the waters thereof.

---

**Source Credit**: (June 17, 1902, ch. 1093, § 8, 32 Stat. 390.)

## Editorial Notes

### References in Text

This Act, referred to in text, is act , popularly known as the Reclamation Act, which is classified generally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under  and Tables.

### Codification

Section is comprised of section 8 (less proviso) of act . The remainder of section 8 is classified to .

## Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Section as Unaffected by Submerged Lands Act

Provisions of this section as not amended, modified or repealed by the Submerged Lands Act, see .