Wet water
Also called: paper water vs wet water
Water that physically exists and can actually be diverted, as opposed to the volume a right entitles you to on paper.
Paper water is what the filing says. Wet water is what shows up in the ditch. In over-appropriated basins these numbers diverge dramatically, and the divergence is the central risk in any water investment.
Closing the gap requires measurement: streamflow at a gauge upstream of the diversion, reservoir storage backing the basin, snowpack that will refill it, and the drought classification on the county. A right underwritten without those is underwritten on paper alone.
Where this shows up in the data
Who this matters to
Data Centers & AI Infrastructure
Power, water, fiber and permitting risk for every candidate site — before you send anyone to look at it.
Water Rights Investing
Price seniority, spot the mismatch between paper water and wet water, and find positions before they are listed.
Industrial & Manufacturing Siting
The same constraint stack as a data center, weighted for process load instead of compute.
See also
More in Hydrology & supply
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