Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1130376
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 11:02:09+00:00

Document:
INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF THE DUAL WATER RIGHTS SYSTEMS 207 this statute enacted the law of riparian rights to a limited extent.223 However, in 1966 the State legislature enacted the Water Use Act,224 which is fundamentally an appropriation doctrine statute.225 Without mentioning the term "riparian" it apparently purports to phase out that water rights doctrine. The 1966 act repealed the earlier mining legislation226 and provides that: A water right acquired by law before the effective date of this chapter or a beneficial use of water on the effective date of this chapter, or made within five years before the effective date, or made in conjunction with works under construction on the effective date, under a lawful common law or customary appropriation or use, is a lawful appropriation under this chapter. The appropriation is subject to applicable provisions of this chapter and rules and regulations adopted under this chapter. [Emphasis suppl- ied.]227 This apparently purports to convert any riparian rights to appropriative rights. While this language appears to be broad enough to recognize both used and unused riparian rights, the act does not appear to include any procedure for establishing evidence of and preserving unused rights.228 At any rate, the act apparently contemplates that any such rights may be declared forfeited if they have not been beneficially used, without sufficient cause, within 5 years after the act's effective date.229 California Appropriations made on private lands are inferior to the riparian rights that attach to tracts of land above the appropriator's point of diversion even though the upstream tracts were part of the Federal public domain at the time the 223Balabanoff v. Kellog, 10 Alaska 11, 16-17, 118 Fed. (2d) 597, 599 (9th Cir. 1940), certiorari denied, 314 U. S. 635 (1941). ""Alaska Laws 1966, ch. 50 Stat. § 46.15.010 et seq. (Supp. 1966). 225 The act provides inter alia that "Wherever occurring in a natural state, the waters are reserved to the people for common use and are subject to appropriation and beneficial use as provided in this chapter." Alaska Stat. § 46.15.030 (Supp. 1966). 226 Alaska Laws 1966, ch. 50, § 2. 227 Alaska Stat. § 46.15.060 (Supp. 1966). See also § § 46.15.260 (2) and 46.15.030. The act's effective date was July 1,1966. Alaska Laws 1966, ch. 50, § 3. 228 Except where works were under construction on the act's effective date. See Alaska Stat. § 46.15.135(a) (Supp. 1966) and Alaska Reg. 801.01, discussed in Trelease, F. J., "Alaska's New Water Use Act," 2 Land & Water L. Rev. 1, 31-32 (1967). 229Alaska Stat. § 46.15.140(b) (Supp. 1966) provides that "The commissioner [of natural resources] may declare an appropriation to be wholly or partially forfeited and shall revoke the certificate of appropriation if an appropriator voluntarily fails or neglects, without sufficient cause, to make use of all or a part of his appropriated water for a period of five successive years." The act apparently purports to convert any unused riparian rights to appropriative rights, as discussed above.

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