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Show 290 LOSS OF WATER RIGHTS IN WATERCOURSES forfeiture in California;196 and no method by which the right can be lost has yet been declared by the high courts of either State. Not ancient Hawaiian water rights.-In Hawaiian water law there is no provision for loss of surface water rights by statutory forfeiture, which applies to appropriative water rights in most Western States.197 Forfeiture Statutes Cancellation of unperfected rights to appropriate water generally not included.-This subject is discussed in chapter 7.198 It is there pointed out that most Western States, through legislative declarations relating to forfeiture and abandonment, take cognizance of inactive appropriative rights after their matiTrtfy, but that statutes of some States are silent as to the status of a permit the requirements of which are not being met by the holder, and as to what should be done about it. Several States have self-executing statutes terminating the unperfected rights of a permittee who fails to comply with the legislative requirements. Still other statutes call for direct action upon the part of the State administrator, subject to judicial review. Inchoate appropriative right.-Very little on the statutory forfeiture of an inchoate appropriative right has come to light in the course of this study.199 In 1940 the Wyoming Supreme Court stated that "while there may be exceptions, the statute of non-user seems, primarily at least, to apply only to a perfected right in case a water right is initiated under a permit and not to an inchoate right, since the statute gives the State Engineer the right not only to extend but also to cancel a permit."200 Compare the previous discussion under "Abandonment-Some Other Aspects of the Doctrine-Abandonment of inchoate appropriative right." Perfected appropriative rights.-The ensuing discussion under this topic, 196Los Angeles v. Glendale, 23 Cal. (2d) 68, 75-76, 142 Pac. (2d) 289 (1943). See in chapter 11 "Pueblo Water Rights in California-Extent of the Pueblo Water Right- Superiority of the Pueblo Water Right-Preservation of the pueblo right." I97See, in chapter 12, "Some Aspects of the Ancient Hawaiian Surface Water Right." See also Hutchins, W. A., "The Hawaiian System of Water Rights" 140 (1946). With respect to extinguishment of rights to ground waters, see Haw. Rev. Stat. § 177-18 (1968), mentioned in chapter 20 infra. 198 See "Methods of Appropriating Water of Watercourses-Current Appropriation Proce- dures-Administrative-Procedural steps in appropriating water-(4) Permit to appropri- ate water," para. d. 199With respect to so-called "abandonment" of unperfected, or conditional, water rights in Colorado, see, in chapter 8, "Inchoate Appropriative Right-Conditional Decrees and Water Rights in Colorado." See also the discussion of the Nebraska forfeiture statute at notes 217-219 infra. The North Dakota statute contains language similar to that of the Nebraska statute. See note 226 infra. 200 Campbell v. Wyoming Dev. Co., 55 Wyo. 347, 402, 100 Pac. (2d) 124, 102 Pac. (2d) 745 (1940). |