As a general rule, navigable waters are subject to the sole jurisdiction and control of the State of New York.1 However, the New York Navigation Law excludes “tidewaters bordering on and lying within the boundaries of Nassau and Suffolk counties”2 from the definition of navigable waters subject to the authority of the state government. The purpose of this exclusion is to give deference to the colonial land grants—made well before the Revolutionary War—that conferred ownership and control over tidal waterways to certain Long Island townships.
The Town of Southampton is one such township. Its fundamental charter, granted nearly 325 years ago, is the Dongan Patent of 1686.3 An act of the colonial assembly of 1691 confirmed this and other charters,4 and a provision in the first New York State Constitution declared that nothing in it would prejudice rights previously granted by such charters.5 The statutory exemption contained in the Navigation Law is one of the most recent iterations of the centuries-old rule, and it frequently has been construed as authorizing Nassau and Suffolk counties, and their townships, to legislate and control the use of their waterways.6
