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Show SPRING WATERS 599 An appropriation of water of a spring rising on one's land and flowing therefrom can be made by the owner of the land during only certain seasons of the year, and by other parties during other seasons.171 The owner of land that contains a spring from which a stream of water flows has only such rights in the spring as he may be entitled to as a riparian owner, or as an appropriator if he himself has appropriated water from the spring. He may make such an appropriation; but his appropriative right in the spring water will be limited, as against the rights of junior appropriators, by the circumstances of his acquisition and perfection of the right, just as in case of appropriations of water generally.172 It is well settled in California that the owner of land upon which there is located a spring, the water from which flows in a natural channel across his land and thence upon or through lands belonging to others, does not have, solely by virtue of his location with respect to the spring, exclusive rights therein, but on the contrary has only the rights of a riparian owner.173 The riparian doctrine applies both to the spring and to the natural watercouse that flows away from it.174 The same rule applies with respect to a spring on one's land that supplies water to a watercourse by percolation through the soil, rather than in a defined channel.175 In either case, the spring supplying the stream is a part of the stream.176 The riparian owner's right to have the water of a stream flow to his land does not depend upon the length of the stream above him, but "is the same, whether the stream commences on his neighbor's land or fifty miles away."177 The riparian rights of the landowner, with respect to a spring on his land that is tributary to a watercourse, as against downstream appropriative rights, are the same as those of any upstream riparian owner. His rights in the spring supplying the stream accrue when title to the land on which the spring is located passes to private ownership. These rights are not impaired by a downstream appropriation made on private land, either before or after private title is obtained to the land containing the spring.178 Developed spring water.- A riparian owner, who, by artificial means increases the flow of a spring on his land, the water being tributary to a creek, xnSuisun v.De Freitas, 142 Cal. 350, 351-353, 75 Pac. 1092 (1904). 172 Id. 113Scott v. Fruit Growers' Supply Co., 202 Cal. 47, 52, 258 Pac. 1095 (1927); L. Mini Estate Co. v. Walsh, 4 Cal. (2d) 249, 254, 48 Pac. (2d) 666 (1935); San Francisco Bank v. Longer, 43 Cal. App. (2d) 263, 268, 110 Pac. (2d) 687 (1941). 174Holmes v. Nay, 186 Cal. 231, 234-235, 199 Pac. 325 (1921). 175Gutierrez v. Wege, 145 Cal. 730, 734, 79 Pac. 449 (1905). 176Id. 117Chauvet v. Hill, 93 Cal. 407, 408, 28 Pac. 1066 (1892). See Eckel v. Springfield Tunnel & Dev. Co., 87 Cat App. 617, 622, 262 Pac. 425 (1927). 178Holmes v. Nay, 186 Cal. 231, 234-235, 199 Pac. 325 (1921). |