Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1130236
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 18:35:30+00:00

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ELEMENTS OF WATERCOURSE 67 streams in the Great Basin, and some small streams elsewhere, flow into sumps or lakes with no surface outlets, or disappear into the ground. A stream that has the three elements of a watercourse generally held to be essential-definite channel, substantial stream, and definite source of supply-is not barred from that classification simply because the water eventually disappears into the ground or is discharged into a marsh or lake from which there is no perceptible surface outlet. Some particulars.- Classification of the watercourse depends upon circum- stances that prevail from its beginning to its end, and is not determined by the manner of its ending nor by the character of discharge of the water at the point at which the legal classification ceases. The fact that a stream of water loses its identity or vanishes from sight in one way or another "does not deprive the part which flows regularly through a channel of its character as a water- course."236 In a Washington case, the supreme court held that the trial judge "was guided too much by what he saw at the dry season of the year, and was temporarily misled by the idea that, in order for there to be a stream in a legal sense, 'it must flow on down to a certain place and have a mouth somewhere.' "237 Disappearance of the water into the ground, or absence of a mouth to the stream, as the trial court suggested, should make no difference in classifying the upper portion as a watercourse. "Streams usually empty into other streams, lakes, or the ocean, but a stream does not lose its character as a watercourse even though it may break up and disappear."238 According to the Kansas Supreme Court, 'The fact that the channel of the stream in question grew less distinct and that it practically passed out of sight before the waters reached Dry Creek does not argue that the stream lacks the characteristics of a watercourse ,"239 Thus, the watercourse may terminate with the discharge of the water into another stream,240 or into a lake,241 or the sea;242 or it may have a definite ending in a slough connected with a watercourse.243 It may discharge into a swamp or sandy basin.244 Or the stream "may spread out over the land."245 In the usual situation-although, as above stated, not the only controlling one-the watercourse discharges its flow into some other stream or body of 236 Rait v. Furrow, 74 Kans. 101, 109, 85 Pac. 934 (1906). 237 Allison v. Linn, 139 Wash. 474, 477-478, 247 Pac. 731 (1926). 23SMogle v. Moore, 16 Cal. (2d) 1, 9, 104 Pac. (2d) 785 (1940). 239 Brown v. Schneider, 81 Kans. 486, 488, 106 Pac. 41 (1910). 240 Sanguinetti v. Pock, 136 Cal. 466, 472, 69 Pac. 98 (1902). 241 Duckworth v. Watsonville Water & Light Co., 150 Cal. 520, 529, 89 Pac. 338 (1907); Costello v. Bowen, 80 Cal. App. (2d) 621, 627, 182 Pac. (2d) 615 (1947). 242 Costello v. Bowen, 80 Cal. App. (2d) 621, 627, 182 Pac. (2d) 615 (1947). 243Herminghaus v. Southern California Edison Co., 200 Cal. 81, 92, 252 Pac. 607 (1926). 244 Duckworth v. Watsonville Water & Light Co., 150 Cal. 520, 528-529, 89 Pac. 338 (1907); Costello v. Bowen, 80 Cal. App. (2d) 621, 627, 182 Pac. (2d) 615 (1947). 245 Rait v. Furrow, 74 Kans. 101, 109, 85 Pac. 934 (1906).

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