Opinion ID: 2210281
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Appropriation without Physical Diversion

Text: It is clear that nothing in these provisions expressly prohibits appropriations for instream use. The complaining objectors would imply a prohibition from the definition of appropriation. Although they realize that the Constitution does not define the word, they would have us read [t]he right to divert unappropriated waters of every natural stream for beneficial use as such a definition. From this, they would then have us conclude that a physical diversion is an essential element of any appropriation, and then reach the further conclusion that because of this, § 6 must be read as prohibiting instream appropriations. Before proceeding with an analysis of this argument, it is fitting to recall that neither constitutional nor statutory provisions are open to construction as a matter of course. Muller v. Thaut, 230 Neb. 244, 430 N.W.2d 884 (1988); Gaffney v. State Department of Education, 192 Neb. 358, 220 N.W.2d 550 (1974). Thus, construction of a constitutional provision is appropriate only when it has been demonstrated that the meaning of the provision is not clear and that construction is necessary. State ex rel. Spire v. Public Emp. Ret. Bd., 226 Neb. 176, 410 N.W.2d 463 (1987). The complaining objectors assert their reading of § 6 as limiting appropriations to out-of-stream uses reflects what the framers plainly intended. Brief for Zwiebel at 12. To shore up their view, the complaining objectors turn to the customs of miners in the early days of water appropriations in the west. In that connection we are constrained to observe that there probably was not much mining going on in Nebraska and that the customs of miners in other jurisdictions are not a compelling ground for overturning a statute. Be that as it may, it appears that in those days an actual diversion of water away from the stream was considered necessary before a use could be perfected into a protected right. We recognize that there are many cases and authorities which still define an appropriation in terms of a physical diversion of water applied to a beneficial use. See, e.g., Simons v. Inyo Cerro Gordo Co., 48 Cal.App. 524, 192 P. 144 (1920); 1 W. Hutchins, Water Rights Laws in the Nineteen Western States ch. 7 at 366 (1971). The complaining objectors urge that this was the view of the framers when § 6 was adopted and that § 6 must therefore be read as requiring such a diversion. We agree with the complaining objectors' reading of § 6 so far as it recognizes the framers' intent to adopt the doctrine of prior appropriation. This does not, however, mean that we accept the argument that § 6 was intended to prohibit instream appropriations. Although the language of a constitutional provision is to be interpreted with reference to established laws, usage, and customs of the country at the time of its adoption, its terms and provisions ... `are constantly expanded and enlarged by construction to meet the advancing affairs of men.' State ex rel. Spire v. Public Emp. Ret. Bd., supra 226 Neb. at 179, 410 N.W.2d at 465, quoting State ex rel. State Railway Commission v. Ramsey, 151 Neb. 333, 37 N.W.2d 502 (1949). We have long recognized that §§ 4, 5, and 6 grant constitutional protection to the doctrine of prior appropriation. Wasserburger v. Coffee, 180 Neb. 149, 141 N.W.2d 738 (1966), modified in other respects 180 Neb. 569, 144 N.W.2d 209. This doctrine was adopted by our Legislature via the irrigation act of 1895, parts of which were later incorporated into Neb. Const. art. XV, §§ 4, 5, and 6. Wasserburger, supra . Prior to the adoption of the appropriation system, water rights in Nebraska were governed by the common-law system of riparian rights. Under the riparian system, only those landowners whose property is adjacent to a body of water have a right to use that water. The rights of all riparians along a given body of water are equal, regardless of when they began using the water. Riparian proprietors could not divert significant flows out of the natural channel of a stream without returning that water to the channel, nor could they apply that water to nonriparian lands. See, generally, Meng v. Coffee, 67 Neb. 500, 93 N.W. 713 (1903); Crawford Co. v. Hathaway, 67 Neb. 325, 93 N.W. 781 (1903), overruled, Wasserburger v. Coffee, supra; 1 R. Clark, Waters and Water Rights §§ 16, 16.1, and 16.2 (1967); 1 H. Farnham, The Law of Waters and Water Rights §§ 62 to 64b (1904); 3 H. Farnham, The Law of Waters and Water Rights §§ 602 to 606 (1904). While this doctrine was well suited to England's green and pleasant land, where ample rains watered crops and most uses were nonconsumptive, it soon became apparent to settlers that pure riparianism would hinder development in the more arid regions of the American West. See, generally, Meng v. Coffee, supra ; Crawford Co. v. Hathaway, supra; 1 S. Wiel, Water Rights in the Western States §§ 110 to 118 (3d ed. 1911). Nebraska responded to this natural want of water by adopting the doctrine of prior appropriation. The attributes of the appropriative doctrine which distinguish it from riparianism are its focus on the application of the water to a beneficial use, rather than on the ownership of riparian land, and its use of a first-in-time, first-in-right approach to conflicts between users, as opposed to the riparian system's equality among riparians. The appropriative system permits water use on lands where the riparian system would deny it and protects senior, more established water uses in times of shortage. Adoption of the appropriative system permitted the acquisition of a right to the beneficial use of water based on the seniority of the use, independent of the riparian or nonriparian nature of the land. Obviously, some type of diversion is necessary in order to use water on nonriparian land; the crucial question, however, is this: Do the laws of Nebraska require a diversion when one is not required by the laws of physics? As this is the first instream flow appropriation granted, this is the first time this court has been asked to determine whether a diversion is a necessary prerequisite to a valid appropriation. Although a number of courts and authorities have stated that a diversion is a prerequisite, this view has been criticized as being obsolete. See, Comment, Minimum Streamflows: The Legislative Alternatives, 57 Neb.L. Rev. 704 (1978); Comment, The Prerequisite of a Man-Made Diversion in the Appropriation of Water RightsState ex rel. Reynolds v. Miranda, 13 Nat. Resources J. 170 (1973); Note, Arizona Water Law: The Problem of Instream Appropriation for Environmental Use by Private Appropriators, 21 Ariz.L.Rev. 1095 (1980). The diversion requirement traditionally served two functions. First, it provided notice to others of the intent to appropriate and, once the appropriation was perfected, of the existence of the appropriation. Comment, 57 Neb.L.Rev. 704, supra, citing C. Meyers, A Historical and Functional Analysis of the Appropriation System 7 (1971). Second, the capacity of the diversion works established the maximum amount a user could claim to have appropriated. See, e.g., Vonburg v. Farmers Irrigation District, 132 Neb. 12, 270 N.W. 835 (1937). Since the permit system provides a surer method of providing lasting notice of the existence and quantity of valid appropriative rights, requiring a diversion as a prerequisite serves no useful purpose. Nebraska's permit system predates the adoption of the constitutional provisions under discussion. Given the principle of constitutional interpretation that each and every clause in a constitution has been inserted for some useful purpose, Anderson v. Tiemann, 182 Neb. 393, 155 N.W.2d 322 (1967), appeal dismissed 390 U.S. 714, 88 S.Ct. 1418, 20 L.Ed.2d 254 (1968), we must conclude that the use in § 6 of the term divert serves some purpose other than to prohibit nondiversionary appropriations. It seems more likely that the framers chose to use divert in order to stress that the appropriative right was independent of riparian ownership. Since § 6 sets forth the other key aspects of the appropriative right, that the water must be put to beneficial use and that priority of appropriation gives the better right, it is reasonable to conclude that divert was intended to express the third aspect of the appropriative right, to wit, the ability to take the water away from the stream's locale. Our conclusion that diversions are not constitutionally required for all appropriations is not aberrant. Of the nine other Western States with constitutional provisions protecting prior appropriation, only two mention diversion: Colorado and Idaho. Comment, 57 Neb.L.Rev. 704, supra at 722. Article 15, § 3, of the Idaho Constitution provides that [t]he right to divert and appropriate the unappropriated waters of any natural stream to beneficial uses, shall never be denied, except that the state may regulate and limit the use thereof for power purposes. Article XVI, § 6, of the Colorado Constitution provides that [t]he right to divert the unappropriated waters of any natural stream to beneficial uses shall never be denied. Both Idaho and Colorado have faced the question now before us and have rejected the complaining objectors' argument. The Idaho Supreme Court in State, Dept. of Parks v. Idaho Dept. of Water Admin., 96 Idaho 440, 530 P.2d 924 (1974), upheld an instream appropriation against an identical challenge, as did the Colorado Supreme Court in Colo. Riv. Wtr. v. Colo. Wtr., 197 Colo. 469, 594 P.2d 570 (1979). The Colorado court was unanimous in its determination that a diversion was not required by its constitution. It noted that the diversion requirement is court-made and that the reason and thrust of the constitutional use of divert was to negate any thought that Colorado would follow the riparian doctrine.... Id. at 474, 594 P.2d at 573. The Colorado high court was also able to point to earlier cases which indicated that the need to divert was not of constitutional import. Id., citing Thomas v. Guiraud et al., 6 Colo. 530 (1883), and Larimer Co. R. Co. v. People ex rel., 8 Colo. 614, 9 P. 794 (1885) ( Thomas involved a dam which caused overflow irrigation of a meadow and Larimer the storage of surplus waters in the natural channel of the stream; both contain dicta to the effect that an actual diversion is not a prerequisite to finding a valid appropriation). The Idaho Supreme Court was divided when it determined the constitutionality of Idaho's instream flow appropriation statute. Both the plurality and concurring opinions rejected the notion that physical diversion is a constitutional requirement. The plurality concluded that although the prior statutory scheme contemplated an actual physical diversion, the instream flow statute created an exception to that requirement. State, Dept. of Parks v. Idaho Dept. of Water Admin., supra 96 Idaho at 444, 530 P.2d at 928. The concurring opinion spent more time examining the nature of the appropriative right in comparison to riparian doctrine and concluded that the constitutional reference to diversion was intended to recognize the supremacy of the appropriation doctrine over riparianism and not as a limit on the methods of perfecting a water right. State, Dept. of Parks, supra (Bakes, J., concurring specially). Two justices dissented, but only one addressed the question of whether diversion was a constitutional requirement. This dissent focused on earlier Idaho cases which spoke of the need to divert water and apply it to a beneficial use; the existing statutory application, permit, and licensing requirements; and the use of the conjunctive in the constitutional grant of the right to divert and appropriate. Id. at 451, 530 P.2d at 935 (McQuade, J., dissenting). Even if we were to conclude that the framers of article XV, § 6, intended to give constitutional protection only to appropriations made by means of a physical diversion, we would not be forced to conclude that such protection prohibits the Legislature from creating other means of acquiring rights to water. There is nothing in the language of the Constitution which indicates that § 6 is the exclusive means of acquiring a water right. Indeed, we have long held that the adoption of § 6 did not do away with riparian rights. Wasserburger v. Coffee, 180 Neb. 149, 141 N.W.2d 738 (1966), modified in other respects 180 Neb. 569, 144 N.W.2d 209. Just as Nebraska originally adopted the appropriation doctrine by statute (1895 Neb.Laws, ch. 69, p. 244), the Legislature can, subject to constitutional limitations, including those set forth in § 6, provide for the acquisition of nondiversionary appropriative rights to public water.