Who owns the riverbed in Virginia?
The Commonwealth, unless the bed was conveyed by special grant or compact. Virginia law keeps the beds of rivers and creeks as state property, and the bounds of land along them extend to the mean low-water mark but no farther, except where the river or creek lies within a lawful survey. Whether a particular bed was ever granted is a title question.
A riverside deed runs to the mean low-water mark, and no farther
Walk down to where the creek meets your land and look at the water's edge rather than the middle of the channel. Unless the bed lies within a lawful survey, Virginia law puts the limit of a riverside tract near that edge, at the mean low-water mark, and not at the center of the stream.
the limits or bounds of the tracts of land lying on the bays, rivers, creeks, and shores within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth, and the rights and privileges of the owners of such lands, shall extend to the mean low-water mark but no farther, except where a creek or river, or some part thereof, is comprised within the limits of a lawful survey.
Va. Code 28.2-1202
Two things follow from that sentence. The land, and the rights and privileges that come with owning it, run to the mark. The bed beyond it stays with the Commonwealth unless the exception applies. The companion section says the same thing from the state's side: the beds of the bays, rivers and creeks that were not conveyed by special grant or compact remain Commonwealth property, usable as a common by the people of Virginia for fishing, fowling and hunting.
Where the mean low-water mark actually falls on a given parcel is not something to settle by eye from the bank. It is a land surveyor's call, and how a boundary survey is made, from the deed's calls to the markers in the ground, is explained in how land surveys work. When a deed's line follows a creek, it does so in metes and bounds calls or by reference to a plat, and how those calls meet the water is part of what the surveyor works out.
A bed inside a lawful survey is the one way past the mark
The statute's exception is narrow. The low-water limit gives way only where a creek or river, or part of one, lies within the limits of a lawful survey, and the same section defines that phrase in two parts.
"lawful survey" means the boundaries of any land, including submerged lands, held under a special grant or compact as required by ยง 28.2-1200
Va. Code 28.2-1202
such boundaries having been determined by generally accepted surveying methods and evidenced by a plat or map thereof recorded in the circuit court clerk's office of the county or city in which the land lies.
Va. Code 28.2-1202
Put plainly, an owner's bounds reach past the mark only where the creek or river lies inside land held under a special grant or compact whose boundaries, submerged land included, were fixed by accepted surveying methods and shown on a plat or map recorded in the circuit court clerk's office. A plat that draws a line through the water is only part of that test; the definition turns on land held under a special grant or compact.
Finding out whether anything like that exists for your frontage is title search work, done by a title examiner who traces the chain of deeds and read by an attorney. This page rests on the statute alone. How a court would treat a disputed bed between two neighbors is a question for counsel, not for a general answer.
Building on the bed or taking gravel from it takes the state's permission
Because an ungranted bed is state property, what happens on it is regulated even when one person owns the land on both banks.
Va. Code 28.2-1203 makes it unlawful to build, dump, trespass or encroach on or over, or take or use any materials from, the beds of rivers, streams or creeks that are the property of the Commonwealth, unless a permit from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission covers the act or it falls within one of the section's listed exceptions. A violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Where no exception fits, Va. Code 28.2-1204 lets the Commission issue permits for reasonable uses of state-owned bottomlands.
- Gravel, sand or stone dug out of the bed is taking materials from it.
- A pier, a crossing or fill placed in the channel is building or encroaching on it.
- Dumping into the channel is named in the same sentence of the statute.
A dock runs through more than VMRC: the private pier exception, the 2023 change for nontidal water and the Joint Permit Application are set out in can I build a dock on the New River.
Owning the bank, not the bed, and what the Code says about the water
Stopping at the low-water mark does not leave the owner of the bank with nothing at the water. The same chapter of the Code refers to an adjacent landowner's riparian or littoral rights, the rights that attach to owning land beside water rather than the bed under it. The term is defined in the riparian rights glossary entry, and what those rights include in a dispute between neighbors is an attorney's question.
The water itself is treated separately again. Virginia's water policy chapter defines water to include all waters on the surface and under the ground within or bordering the Commonwealth that affect the public welfare, and it declares those waters a natural resource which should be regulated by the Commonwealth. Drawing water from a creek, a spring on the property and irrigation are covered in springs, creeks and water rights.
A tract with a creek or river on the line?
Send the parcel and the water it touches. Lowell will point out the surveys and title records the water brings into a sale. No cost, no obligation.
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Questions this raises
Can I take gravel out of the creek that runs through my land?
Not from a Commonwealth-owned bed without authority. Va. Code 28.2-1203 makes taking or using materials from state-owned beds of rivers, streams or creeks unlawful without a VMRC permit unless one of its listed exceptions applies, and dredging can also bring in the Virginia Water Protection Permit program. If the bed may have been conveyed by special grant, a title examiner and an attorney check that before anyone digs.
Can the public fish or hunt on the river along my frontage?
The statute keeps ungranted beds of rivers and creeks as Commonwealth property that may be used as a common by the people of Virginia for fishing, fowling and hunting. Your land, and your rights as its owner, extend to the mean low-water mark unless the bed lies within a lawful survey. How those two meet on a particular reach, including how anyone gets to the water, is a question for an attorney rather than a general rule.
Does my deed tell me whether I own the creek bed?
It is where the search starts, not where it ends. Whatever the deed's calls say, the statute's test is whether the creek lies within a lawful survey, meaning land held under a special grant or compact, with boundaries fixed by accepted surveying methods and shown on a plat recorded with the circuit court clerk. A title examiner traces the chain back and an attorney reads what it shows.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Va. Code 28.2-1200, ungranted beds of bays, rivers and creeks remain the Commonwealth's Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 28.2-1202, bounds of riverside land and the lawful survey Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 28.2-1203, unlawful use of state-owned beds and its exceptions Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 28.2-1204, permits for reasonable uses of state-owned bottomlands Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 62.1-10, definitions for the water policy chapter Code of Virginia
- Va. Code 62.1-11, declaration of water policy Code of Virginia