Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1139140
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 08:39:14+00:00

Document:
758 years, but the appropriator and his assigns have the prior right of reappropriation.284 Appropriations are initiated by making application to the State Engineer for permits. A certificate of construction is issued on com- pletion of construction, and a license to appropriate the water upon its application to beneficial use.285 Failure to use appropriated water beneficially for three years results in forfeiture of the right.286 Like- wise, water appurtenant to land reverts to the public upon abandon- ment of the use of the water on the land.287 Holders of agricultural lands may obtain rights, for irrigation or livestock purposes, to the flood waters in any "dry draw" or watercourse not having a flow of at least 20 miner's inches during the greater part of the year. The prospective user files a location certificate in the county records, posts a copy, and sends a copy to the State Engineer. He may obtain from the State Engineer a certificate of right upon petition; but these dry-draw rights are not subject to the rules and regulations of the State Engineer or under his jurisdiction.288 Riparian rights in South Dakota have been recognized in a number of court decisions. The United States Supreme Court, in Sturr v. Beck,289 recognized the existence of such rights in the Territory of Dakota, and cited the statutory declaration by the Territory that the landowner may use the water of a definite stream while it remains on his land but may not prevent its natural flow.290 The State statute containing the same declaration, derived from the Territorial statute, was stated by the South Dakota Supreme Court to have been a concise statement of the common-law doctrine applicable to the rights of riparian owners,291 and "should be regarded as merely declaratory of the common law as understood by the commissioners when their report was prepared." 2B2 Riparian rights are incident to and part of the 284 S. Dak. Code 1939, § 61.0152. 288 S. Dak. Code 1939, §§ 61.0122 to 61.0132. 286 S. Dak. Code 1939, § 61.0139. 287 S. Dak. Code 1939, § 61.0141. 288 S. Dak. Code 1939, § 61.0133; Laws 1947, ch. 420. 289Sturr v. Beck, 133 U. S. 541, 547, 551 (1890). 299 See supra, n. 282, p. 757. 291 Lone Tree Ditch Co. v. Cyclone Ditch Co., 15 S. Dak. 519, 525-526, 91 N. W. 352 (1902). ™Redwater Land & Canal Co. v. Reed, 26 S. Dak. 466, 474, 128 N. W. 702 (1910). "Commissioners" refers to the Code commissioners of New York. The South Dakota court stated that section 278 of the Revised Civil Code of South Dakota (which was taken from section 255 of the Civil Code of the Territory of Dakota) was the same as section 256 of the New York Civil Code as proposed by the Code commissioners of that State. "There is no suggestion in the report of the commissioners of an intention to change the common law respecting riparian rights. Therefore section 278 of our Civil Code should be regarded as merely declaratory of the common law as understood by the com- missioners when their report was prepared."

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