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Show PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFUSED SURFACE WATERS 539 the flood subsides, or may become completely and permanently separated from the stream. In chapter 3 it was shown, in discussing "Floodflows-Flood Overflows," that the more generally accepted rule is that floodwater overflows that recede into the main channel as the flood subsides are regarded as a part of the stream, not as diffused surface water. It was also brought out that in most Western jurisdictions in which the question has been adjudicated, overflow water that escapes from a stream and that does not return to its banks nor find its way to another watercourse is classified as diffused surface water. In a minority of jurisdictions, as shown in chapter 3, overflows that escape from a stream and remain outside as the flood subsides are classified as flood waters, not diffused surface waters. With respect to overflows that escape from the original stream but eventually rejoin it, the decisions conflict. Some authorities hold that water escaping from one stream and joining another does not become diffused surface water. Situation In general, diffused surface waters are waters which, in their natural state, occur on the surface of the earth in places other than natural watercourses or lakes or ponds. They may be flowing vagrantly over broad lateral areas or, occasionally for brief periods, in natural depressions; or they may be standing in bogs or marshes. The essential characteristics of such waters are that their flows are short-lived and that the waters are spread over the ground and not concentrated or confined in channel flows of regular watercourses nor in natural bodies of water conforming to the definitions of lakes or ponds.12 Diffused surface waters have also been broadly defined as surface drainage falling upon and naturally flowing from and over land before such waters have found their way into a natural watercourse;13 as "a mere collection of flood waters from rains and melting snow that runs off in the winter and spring and does not actually comprise or enter any natural stream or body of water";14 as temporary accumulations of rainwater in natural depressions in sloping land, without distinct banks and without any cut in the soil caused by the frequent flow of water;15 and, in a very early case, as occasional bursts of water which, in times of freshets or melting of ice and snow, descend from high land and inundate the country-in other words, water flowing through hollows, gulches, or ravines only in times of rain or melting snow.16 Essential criteria, therefore, are that, as the name implies, such waters are 12Doney v. Beatty, 124 Mont. 41, 51, 220 Pac. (2d) 77, 82 (1950). "Afogie v.Moore, 16 Cal. (2d) 1, 8-9,104 Pac. (2d) 785 (1940). 14 Washington County In. Dist. v. Talboy, 55 Idaho 382, 389,43 Pac. (2d) 943 (1935). lsGibbs v. Williams, 25 Kans. 214, 215-216, 220-221 (1881). "Barnes v. Sabron, 10 Nev. 217, 236-237 (1875). |