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Show ELEMENTS OF WATERCOURSE 73 channels and in the lake itself are directly connected and constitute one source of water supply, for diversions from the inlet channel or channels reduce the quantity of water otherwise available in the lake and its outlet channel, and diversions from the lake itself reduce the available supply flowing in the outlet. From the standpoint of rights to the use of the common water supply, there is no fundamental distinction between such a lake and any wide portion of the main stream channel, where the question of maintenance of the natural water level is not the determining factor; each is an integral portion of the stream system, and in the absence of the question of maintenance of the water level, rights to the use of the water apparently are not affected by the precise characterization of the particular body of water as a lake or as a watercourse. Lake: Integration of connected sources. -According to the California Supreme Court, a lake physically connected with a watercourse is legally a part of it. The fact that a flowing stream ends in a lake "will not defeat the right to make the statutory appropriation therefrom, and we can see no reason why the appropriation in such a case may not be made from the lake in which the stream terminates, and which therefore constitutes a part of it, as well as from any other part of the watercourse ,"272 In a Kansas case, the parties agreed, and the court so found, that Silver Lake, with the draw or ravine entering it from the west and with its outlet through the east end of the lake to the river, constituted a natural watercourse.273 The relative water rights of owners of land along the lake were held to be those of riparian proprietors. Lake: Reciprocal importance of lake level and outflow.-Lake levels are important to the use of littoral lands in several respects: (1) material lowering of the water moves the shoreline out and down and thus bares previously covered land, which may result in exposure of mudflats, stagnant waters, and impairment of recreational values of the littoral land; (2) material raising of the level causes flooding of previously uncovered land, which may result in flood damage and impairment of usefulness of the land; (3) excessive changes in level may complicate pumping diversions of water from the lake itself. Lake levels are important also to those who depend upon the outflow, which may be materially affected by artificial regulation of the level and by legal and contractual restrictions thereon. Importance of relationships between water levels of a lake and outflow of water in the outlet channel may be illustrated by two examples in the Far West. Lake Tahoe lies across the California-Nevada stateline. It has many definite inlets in the form of small streams, and but one outlet-Truckee River, which 272Duckworth v. Watsonville Water & Light Co., 150 Cal. 520, 528-529, 89 Pac. 338 (1907). 2nDougan v. Board of County Comm'rs., 141 Kans. 554, 562, 43 Pac. (2d) 223 (1935). |