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Show 46 SURFACE WATERS purpose. The more recent permit legislation in some riparian States requires, however, that permits be obtained for water use before any impoundment may be constructed. In a number of appropriation States permits are required in order to store water, in addition to and as distinguished from the permit to build the impounding facility. And some States provide for the "perfecting" of storage rights by requiring a primary permit to store water, and authorizing issuance of a secondary or "perfected" per- mit (to replace the primary permit) when the stored waters are ac- tually applied to beneficial use. 3.6 Springs Rights to use water from springs receives no uniform treatment in the law of the respective States. Springs sometimes are classified as ground water because the source of supply is from the ground, and sometimes as surface water because the water flows on the surface after it emerges from the spring. Springs are perhaps the most obvious examples of the intercon- nection of surface waters with ground water. It is difficult to generalize rights of use in springs, but it can be said that in most Western States springs are considered to be surface water which is available for appropriation. In such cases, applications to appro- priate are filed on the water generated from the spring, and in many instances springs are improved or developed to increase the flow. These water rights are viewed by the law to be the same as other water rights which are perfected in surface watercourses. In many of the Eastern States springs are considered to be privately owned if they originate on and are confined within (do not flow from) land in a single ownership. If the water from the spring flows from the land upon which it originates and either forms a sur- face watercourse by itself or is tributary to a surface watercourse, then the rules of surface watercourses apply, and the owner of the land upon which the spring originates can do no more than make a reasonable use of such water. If a person drills a well into the underground and intercepts water which is the source of supply for a spring, it then becomes important to distinguish whether the undergound source of supply is percolating water or an underground stream. If it is an under- ground stream, then the rules applicable to surface watercourses apply, and the owner of the well and the owner of the land upon which the spring arises are both limited to reasonable uses of the water. If the underground source of supply to the spring is percolat- ing water, then most Eastern States allow the owner of the well to withdraw as much water as he wishes, so long as his conduct is not malicious, negligent or wasteful; but some States apply the doctrine of reasonable use in this situation. Many of these problems are discussed at greater lengths in chapter 4 of this part I, dealing with ground water. |