An 1864 map of the Mississippi River. 7 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org In the United States, rivers, streams, and lakes provide a natural boundary for millions of parcels along thousands of miles of boundary line. As boundaries, rivers are a natural monument, holding the highest priority in the order of conflicting title elements. Visible, their identity certain, they have been used by man as boundaries for millennia. However convenient, and as natural, visible, substantial, and inviting as they are for governments, treaties, and owners, they have one huge, troublesome characteristic: They move! There are many other issues related to using waterbodies as boundaries, but their ambulatory nature is what makes riparian boundaries different from all others. This boundary movement, influenced by the whims and vicissitudes of Mother Nature and the designs and construction of man, brings uncertainty. With movement, the extent of title, and tract acreage changes; even small differences in fluvial processes can result in large differences in ownership. Landowners face uncertainty in something they desire to be firm and absolute: the location of the boundaries of their real property. Generally, owners do not like their boundaries to change, their acreages decreasing or increasing, their lands perhaps vanishing altogether. These boundaries can change by forces of nature that are not within the riparian’s control. Or one’s riparian boundary may be changed by others without the riparian owner’s knowledge or permission, such as, by artificially- induced river movements. Riparian boundaries frequently bring conjecture to the landowner, consternation to the surveyor, confusion to attorneys, confoundment to the courts, and they have conflated commentators. Additionally troublesome is that riparian boundaries can be four-dimensional: In a plane, their north/east horizontal position can be affected by vertical movement of the waterbody. And time can affect the riparian/littoral boundary location. (If the river moved slowly or quickly can have an effect.) Four dimensions, very unlike its usual two-dimensional boundary brethren. And most boundary disputes between adjoiners are personal and are based on emotions. The cost of litigating a boundary almost always far exceeds the value of the land in dispute. Not so in some riparian boundary disputes. At stake can be thousands of acres of land or issues worth tens of millions of dollars. The most epic boundary litigation matter in United States history was a riparian boundary dispute: The famous “Red River Litigation” between Oklahoma and Texas. That litigation spent the 1920s in and out of the U.S. Supreme Court and even at this date there remains an ongoing kerfuffle concerning the boundary. Another example is the current “Is it a river or is it a lake” question in Lake Catahoula in Louisiana (with huge ownership and other consequences). Lex Aquae With its foundation in English Common Law, courts and legislatures (both state and federal) have proclaimed “lex aquae,” the law of the water. Riparian (river) and littoral (lake or seashore) boundaries are part of that law. Riparian boundary law is complex, largely buried in court decisions that set precedents, and, like the shifting sands in a river, it has and will continue to evolve. But it establishes the rules and principles to be followed by the Professional Surveyor when determining the location of a riparian boundary. continues Featured Article
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