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Show Chapter 22. MICHIGAN CONTENTS Page 1. Development of Michigan Water Law__________________________ 393 2. State Organizational Structure for Water Administration and Control. 394 2.1 Administration of Water Rights_______________________ 394 2.2 Resolution of Water Use Conflicts_____________________ 397 2.3 Other Agencies Having Water Resource Responsibilities____ 397 3. Surface Waters____________________________________________ 400 3.1 Method of Acquiring Rights__________________________ 400 3.2 Nature and Limit of Rights__________________________ 401 3.3 Changes, Sales, and Transfers____________......_______ 403 3.4 Loss of Rights_________________________....._______ 403 3.5 Storage Waters, Artificial Lakes, and Ponds-------------------- 404 3.6 Diffused Surface Waters_____________________________ 404 4. Ground Water_____......__________________________________ 405 Publications Available________________________________________ 406 DISCUSSION 1. Development of Michigan Water Law Michigan is located in a region of the United States which receives fairly abundant precipitation, and, although the water supply is not uniformly distributed throughout the State and is not always present where the demand arises, water rights and water administration problems have received but limited attention of the courts and legislature. When conflicts have arisen concerning the use of the waters of a watercourse, the Michigan courts adopted and applied the doctrine of riparian water rights in resolving these disputes,1 and expressly rejected the notion that prior appropriation gave the better right.2 A number of cases have considered diffused surface water, and in almost every instance the problem concerned the disposal of these waters rather than rights of use. The upper landowner generally has a right to allow surface water to drain naturally from his property onto lower lands, but he cannot increase the burden on the adjoining land by concentrating the flow or increasing the volume of the discharge.8 The cases dealing with ground water are very limited, but the court has said that the right to use percolating water is governed by the rule of reasonable use, so that the landowner's right to the underlying ground water is limited to the quantity necessary to make a reasonable use of his land.4 iDumont v. Kellogg, 29 Mich. 420 (1874) ; People v. Hulbert, 131 Mich. 156, 91 N.W. 211 (1902) ; Hoover v. Crane, 362 Mich. 36,106 N.W. 2d 563 (1960). 2 Dutnont v. Kellogg, 29 Mich. 420 (1874). 9 Robinson v. Bdanger, 332 Mich. 657, 52 N.W. 2d 538 (1952) ; Bennett v. County of Eaton, 340 Mich. 330 (1954). * Schenk v. City of Ann Arbor, 196 Mich. 75,163 N.W. 109 (1917). 393 |
