| OCR Text |
Show Chapter 4. GROUND WATER 4.1 Development of Ground Water Law a. Physical Characteristics of Ground Water All water, whether surface or subterranean, is an integral part of the hydrologic cycle. Precipitation replenishes ground water supplies as well as surface watercourses. Historically, legal concepts relating to ground water developed from the assumption that ground water was physically distinct and separate from surface water. This as- sumption was not well founded. It is now known that surface water and ground water are interconnected, and the measure of such inter- connection is determined by the geology and precipitation pattern of the particular area. In areas with high precipitation, ground water ordinarily augments streamflow; whereas in arid regions the reverse is more often the case. Another faulty assumption which the law indulged was that underground streams were common, and that these streams flowed in known and definite underground channels in a manner similar to the flow of surface streams. With few exceptions, ground water perco- lates rather than flows in channels through the underground. o. Legal Distinctions Legal concepts relating to groundwater developed rather inde- pendently from those relating to surface water. This difference in approach resulted in large measure from the view, as expressed in many of the early cases, that ground water was owned by the owner of the land in which it occurred, just as oil and gas. Later cases limited the landowner to a reasonable use of ground water, or to a correlative right to use the water in common with others owning lands overlying the ground water basin. In the Western States the common current practice is to require applications to be filed as the means of appropriating ground water, while Eastern States, to the extent that they require regulation or use permits at all, ordinarily do so only in areas of critical water shortage or where there is a serious threat of salt water intrusion or other contamination of the underground basin. The legal principles applicable to ground water vary in accord- ance with the classification of the water, whether underground streams, percolating water, or springs. Legal considerations relating to spring waters were discussed in chapter 3.6 of this part I, while underground streams and percolating waters are the basic concern of this chapter. 49 |
