Final answer:
A land owner's subsurface rights include the rights to natural resources beneath the property, except when it comes to drilling beneath state-owned waters or where restricted by non-governmental instruments like restrictive covenants and easements.
Step-by-step explanation:
A land owner's subsurface rights typically include the rights to natural resources beneath the surface of the property, such as minerals, oil, and natural gas. However, subsurface rights do not generally extend to activities that interfere with state-owned waters or regulatory prohibitions. In particular, they exclude the right to drill for the exploration or extraction of oil and natural gas beneath state-owned waters, which is often protected from private exploitation to safeguard environmental and public interests.
In addition to governmental restrictions, land use can also be limited by non-governmental restrictions such as restrictive covenants and easements put in place by land developers or previous owners. Such restrictions are designed to maintain certain standards within a development or to protect resources and can further limit what a landowner can do with their subsurface rights.
It is important to note that property rights, including subsurface rights, must be clearly defined in the legal sense to determine what uses are permissible and to protect against infringements that might require compensation, as discussed by economist Ronald Coase.