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Circa 1965
In recent times the discovery of mineral wealth in tidal and offshore areas has led to fee title disputes and U. S. Supreme Court decisions. In general, prior to these court cases, the upland riparian owner, with some exceptions as given below, had a fee title which extended seaward to the mean high tide line. Most coastal states believed that they had a fee title extending from the mean high tide line oceanward at least three geographical miles. Disputes arose over oil leases issued by California in the Santa Barbara area. Both California and the Federal Government claimed fee title to the submerged lands existing between low water line and the three mile limit and both claimed benefits from oil discovered in this area.
The rule for the limits of ownership between the riparian upland owner and the State has always been that states (Texas excepted) owned below the mean high tide line. As an incident of ownership, each State had and still has the right to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the fee title to their tide lands. A Massachusetts colonial ordinance granted to riparian owners tidelands between the mean high tide line and the low water mark, but not more than 100 rods. New Hampshire and Maine adopted similar laws. Grants made prior to the ordinance were held to extend only to the high water mark in Massachusetts and to the low water mark in Maine.
In three Supreme Court cases, United States v California (332 US 19 in 1947), United States v Louisiana (339 US 699 in 1950), and United States v Texas (339 US 707 in 1950), the Federal Government won exclusive ownership of the fee below ordinary low water line. By the submerged Lands Act of 1953 (Public Law 31) offshore lands were granted to the various States.
Apparently, at the time of the passage of the act, there was fear that the courts might decide that the bed of the Great Lakes belonged to the Federal Government; rights to the bed of the Great Lakes were granted to the adjoining States by this act. Also it appears that some of the congressmen were not at all pleased with the Supreme Court’s ideas since the committee wrote, "The Court believed it to be in the past."
The Submerged Lands Act provided among other things:
1. All rights of the Federal Government to mineral resources, fee title, etc., were quit claimed to the States for a distance of three geographical miles seaward in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
2. The fee title, mineral rights, etc. in all bays and inland waters (including the Great Lakes and excepting lands acquired by the Federal Government) were quit claimed to the States.
3. Within the Gulf of Mexico, States could claim to the extent of their boundaries at the time of their admission to the Union but not more than three marine leagues (nine geographic miles).
4. The U. S. reserved lands between the three geographical mile limit and the continental shelf into itself. The United States reserved the usual rights to control commerce, navigation, national defense, etc.
5. The Act defines the three geographical mile limit as being measured from "the line of ordinary low water."
Since the passage of the act, the U. S. Supreme Court has decided that Texas and Florida, at the time of their admission to the Union, had rights to nine geographical miles, hence they could claim nine geographical miles into the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were limited to three geographical miles.
Author Michael Pallamary has compiled the writings and lectures of the late Curtis M. Brown. These works are published in The Curt Brown Chronicles.
A 121Kb PDF of this article as it appeared in the magazine—complete with images—is available by clicking HERE