You'd Think They'd Have Figured This Out Years Ago

Potomac ownership again at issue as Frederick group challenges paddling companies

Blame King Charles I. Or Lord Baltimore. Or even George Washington. That's how long people have been trying to draw a line in the water.

"To local residents, the Potomac River is shorthand for the boundary between Maryland and Virginia," Circuit Judge M. Kenneth Long Jr. wrote recently. "That simplicity and ease belies the centuries of legal, sometimes actual, fighting between the two states over rights and privileges each have on the Potomac."

The river, the judge concluded, "is a prize worth fighting over."

Potomac Shores Inc., a Frederick entity incorporated in Maryland in 1948, claims it owns 550 acres along and under the river. It alleges that paddlers and tubers are trespassing when they leave the water on the Virginia side near the Route 340 bridge in an area known as Potomac Wayside to wait for shuttle buses to pick them up.

The corporation sent cease-and-desist letters to River and Trail Outfitters and River Riders in 2011 and filed suit a year later when it decided its demands were being ignored. In its legal filings, Potomac Shores hinted at the possibility of licensing agreements to resolve the matter.

But the defendants believe courts have decided that the Potomac belongs to Maryland right up to the low-water mark on the Virginia side. The riverbank on that side is controlled by the National Park Service, with which they have permits to operate.

"When it comes to river navigation, the people's right cannot be infringed upon," said Charles Bailey, the lawyer for River and Trail Outfitters of Knoxville in Frederick County. "Tens of thousands of people come out here and use the river every year. No one can claim to own it."

I'm with the paddlers on this one.  The River itself is navigable at that point, which under law, makes it's transit free for all, but Maryland has the rights to land up to the Virginia shore, but can Potomac Shores claim ownership of that bottom?  I suppose.

But maybe the paddlers could build a floating dock out from the Virginia side to land on so they don't have to make their paddlers touch their toes on Maryland muck.

It seems a lot of nothing to fight about.