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Show 568 OTHER WATERS AT THE SURFACE WASTE, SEEPAGE, AND RETURN WATERS Waste, seepage, and return waters are closely related. To some extent, their classifications overlap. As discussed in this topic, waters of all three classes usually originate on irrigation projects or irrigated lands as a result of the conveyance, distribution, and application of irrigation waters. Where considered separately, the following distinctions are made herein: Waste waters are taken to include (1) water purposely discharged from the project works because of operation necessities, (2) water leading from ditches and other works, and (3) excess water flowing from irrigated lands, either on the surface or seeping under it. Seepage waters are waters seeping through the soil from ditches or other works and from irrigated lands and entering stream channels or appearing elsewhere on the surface. Return waters are waters diverted for irrigation or other uses that return to the stream from which they were diverted, or to some other stream, or that would do so if not intercepted by some obstacle. Thus, return waters include both waste water and seepage water. Water pollution is not dealt with per se in this discussion. Water can be waste, or seepage, or return water, or even the natural flow of a watercourse without regard to the question of whether or not it is polluted. That question has nothing to do with the foregoing classification, and should not be confused with or by it. This study of the State water rights laws of the Western States focuses upon water rights-rights to the use of water. Ways in which pollution questions may impinge upon this overall study are discussed in chapter 8 under "Property Characteristics-Right of Property-Right to the Flow of Water-Quality of the water," in chapter 10 under "The Riparian Right-Property Characteristics- Right to the Flow of Water-Quality of the water," and in chapter 13 under "Quality and Quantity of the Water-Quality of the Water." Waste and Seepage Waters The owner of the land on which waste and seepage waters originate and from which they flow to other lands is not ordinarily obliged to continue the conditions that lead to the supply of the waste or seepage water. On the contrary, he may retain part or all of the entire supply and put it to beneficial use on his own land. The rules of law pertaining to this class of surface waters have been made chiefly in the courts, although several controlling statutes have been enacted. It has been noted in various decisions of Western courts that with the establishment and expansion of irrigated areas, seepage into stream channels over a period of years may develop substantial streams of water. In some |