Opinion ID: 2461173
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Establishing how the land became dry

Text: If land was beneath navigable waters when Nevada joined the United States, but is now exposed, whether that land remains subject to the public trust doctrine generally depends on the manner in which it became drywhether by reliction [2] or avulsion. [3] See Cowles, 86 Nev. at 875, 478 P.2d at 161. When the exposure is caused by reliction, the gradual and imperceptible exposure of the land, title to the dry water bed is passed to the adjoining shoreland owners. Id. The event causing the exposure of the water bed may be considered reliction even when the gradual changes to the water bed come about by artificial means: When the exposure is due wholly or in part to artificial causes and those causes are not the act of the party owning the shoreland the rules that prevail as to the ownership of the accreted or relicted land are the same as in the case of accretion or reliction solely by natural causes. Id. In contrast, when changes to the water bed occur by avulsion, that is, by sudden changes in the course of a stream, title is not taken away or bestowed. Peterson v. Morton, 465 F.Supp. 986, 997 (D.Nev.1979) (applying Nevada state law), vacated in part on other grounds by Peterson v. Watt, 666 F.2d 361, 364 (9th Cir.1982). Thus, because artificial actions, such as draining, damming, or channeling a waterway, may result in rapid exposure of the water bed, those events are often appropriately considered avulsions. See id. at 1003 (determining that where the strip of land in question became dry as a result of a sudden deliberate and obvious engineering relocation of the waters within the artificial banks of the permanently channelized river, such an event was considered an avulsion under Nevada law and therefore the state retained title to the land); see also New Jersey v. New York, 523 U.S. 767, 770-71, 784, 118 S.Ct. 1726, 140 L.Ed.2d 993 (1998) (holding that the federal government's filling of a portion of the Hudson River was an avulsion, and, as a consequence, ownership of the new dry land remained unchanged); Garrett v. State, 118 N.J.Super. 594, 289 A.2d 542, 546, 548 (N.J.Super.Ct. Ch. Div.1972) (the filling and rerouting of a tidal stream constituted an avulsion, and accordingly, the state retained title to the streambed). In Cowles, we applied the doctrine of reliction in determining that the state had lost its title to once-submerged land that had gradually and imperceptibly become dry. 86 Nev. at 874-75, 478 P.2d at 161. In the same way, the avulsion doctrine is useful for determining whether the state retains its title to land held in trust for the public after it has become dry. Applying these doctrines balances land gain and loss opportunities in a fair manner and operates as a disincentive to artificially diverting water from public trust lands in an effort to increase personal landholdings near navigable waters. See id. at 876-77, 478 P.2d at 162. Here, whether the disputed land became dry through reliction or avulsion is critical. If it was through reliction, the public trust doctrine does not apply to that land. But if the portion of the Colorado River covering the land was navigable at the time of Nevada's statehood, and the land thereafter became dry through avulsion, the public trust doctrine applies. And if the public trust doctrine applies, whether the disputed land is transferable turns on whether the transfer serves the public's interest in the land and comports with the state's trustee obligations, as discussed next.