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Show 612 OTHER WATERS AT THE SURFACE from springs do not form a watercourse or lake they are surface waters until they empty into and become part of a natural stream or lake. Lackaff v. Bogue, 148 Neb. 174, 62 N.W. 2d 899. * * * The owner of land upon which surface waters arise may retain them for his own use and change their course upon his own land by ditch or embankment. Nichol v. Yocum, 173 Neb. 298, 113 N.W. 2d 195. The clear implication would seem to be that water in a spring at the source of a stream is equally open to appropriation as at any place in the channel leading therefrom, subject of course to existing rights on the stream. Nevada Property rights in springs.-A Federal court stated in 1938:245 We may assume that a right in or to a spring, whether the spring is upon land of the vendor or upon the public domain, is real property. Such a right, particularly for stock watering purposes for stock grazing upon the public domain, may be held by more than one individual or interest although usually but one interest controls. Because of natural conditions particularly, an arid mountainous region covering the major portion of the state's areas of more than 100,000 square miles, the state has recognized and provided for the protection of stockmen who have been first to make use of springs and small water channels to enable them to graze their live stock in adjacent regions which, with the possible exception of mining, is not adaptable to any other use. Appropriation of spring waters. -The water-rights statute provides that the water "of all sources of water supply within the boundaries of the state, whether above or beneath the surface of the ground," belongs to the public and is subject to appropriation for beneficial use.246 It is the settled law of the State that this applies to spring water, rights to the beneficial use of which may be acquired only by appropriation.247 In 1897, a Federal court held that in appropriating waters of a spring upon public lands, the only acts necessary were those appropriate to the circum- stances and physical conditions and practicable to accomplish the appropria- tor's purpose in making beneficial use of the water. The fact that the water was used for culinary and domestic purposes by the appropriator and its agents and employees was sufficient in itself to establish a beneficial use of the water.248 Nebraska statutes provides that "Any depression or draw two feet below the surrounding lands and having a continuous outlet to a stream of water, or river or brook shall be deemed a watercourse." 2*sAdams-McGill Co. v. Hendrix, 22 Fed. Supp. 789, 791 (D. Nev. 1938). 246Nev. Rev. Stat. § § 533.025 and .030 (Supp. 1969). M1In re Manse Spring & Its Tributaries, 60 Nev. 280, 286, 108 Pac. (2d) 311 (1940). ™ Silver Peak Mines v. Valcalda, 79 Fed. 886, 888, 890 (C.C.D. Nev. 1897). |
