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Show PENNSYLVANIA 643 Affairs under the Well Drillers License Act of 1956, and in 1968 was transferred to the Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey in the Department of Environmental Eesources. In brief, no person shall drill a water well within the State without first securing a license from the Department of Internal Affairs (exemptions are granted for persons who drill wells on their own land or on land they hold under lease if the wells are to be used for farming or residential purposes);se and licensed well drillers must file with the Department a notice of intention to drill within twenty-four hours after entering into any agreement or contract to drill a well, and must keep records on each well drilled so as to be able to supply the information re- quired by the department.37 If a well driller violates these statutory conditions he is subject to criminal penalties 38 and his license may be revoked.39 A well owner may be required to seal or fill any abandoned well on his property,40 and the department is empowered to promul- gate any rules or regulations necessary to accomplish the purposes of the Act.41 3. Surface Waters Surface waters include surface watercourses (including lakes and ponds), artificial impoundments, springs, and diffused surface waters. The courts have defined a watercourse as a stream of water usually flowing in a definite channel, having a bed and sides or banks, and discharging itself into another body of water.42 Diffused surface waters, on the other hand, are defined as waters on the surface of the ground which are of a casual or vagrant character, following no definite course and having no substantial or permanent exis- tence.43 The primary concern of this chaper is surface watercourses, although the other categories mentioned above are considered sepa- rately in the latter part of the chapter. 3.1 Method of Acquiring Rights The right to use waters of a stream or watercourse in Pennsylvania is derived from the ownership of the lands through which the stream flows or by which it is bounded. This is the traditional riparian rights doctrine, whereby the right to use the waters of a watercourse is acquired by acquiring riparian land, or land abutting a stream. The measure of the rights so acquired is a matter for judicial deter- mination, and there have been a number of decisions on this subject by the Pennsylvania courts. A more detailed discussion as to the nature and limits of these rights is included in the next section of this chapter, and for now it may simply be noted that a riparian owner is entitled to make a reasonable use of the waters of a stream as it passes through his lands, so long as that use does not materially 86 32 P.S., sec. 645.4. The 1968 amendment transferring administration to the Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey is sec. 645.3(4) (pock. supp.). 87 32 P.S., sec. 645.10. 88 32 P.S., sec. 645.11. 89 32 P.S., sec. 645.8. *°32 P.S., sec. 645.5. «*32 P.S., sec. 645.12. aKunkle v. Borough of Ford City, 305 Pa. 416, 158 Atl. 159 (1931). 43 Richman v. Home Insurance Go. of New York. 172 Pa. sup. 383, 94 A. 2d 164 (1953). 499-242-73------42 |
