9 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 8. Owner A conveys to B “all lands north of the river,” then Owner A conveys to C, “all lands south of the north bank of the river.” Based on those facts, what is C’s northerly title line? 9. For your state, are the legal principles different for a river as compared to a lake? If so, define or distinguish the difference between a river and a lake. 10.The GLO meander line is practically never the upland owner’s boundary. As the successor to the patentee, the patent being a lot made fractional by a waterbody, the waterbody is the boundary, not the meander line. Can there be an exception, the meander line being the boundary? 11.Suppose in the deed of a riparian tract, its acreage is given. A current survey shows that the acreage mentioned does not include the accretions to the tract that have been added since the deed was written (but has been used in subsequent conveyances for many years). Are the accretions conveyed by the later deeds? 12.Does your jurisdiction embrace or reject re-emergence? That is, suppose that by erosion an advancing river completely erodes and washes away a parcel. The river then retreats, accretions forming where the parcel formerly was located. Who gets title to the “re-emerged” parcel? Does the original owner’s title “re-emerge,” or, does it accrete and inure to the benefit of the owner of the last mainland the river touched (who could have been previously non-riparian)? 13.On a stream that is non-navigable for title (the upland owner(s) holding title to the bed) does the public have the right to float-fish or canoe through the property? Camp on its banks? 14.Suppose artificial improvements to the banks or in the channel of a river create changes downstream by erosion and accretion. Do the usual legal principles of riparian boundaries still apply? 15.When does the apportionment of an accretion stop, the apportionment becoming fixed? That is, as an accretion grows and changes shape its apportioned lines move as well. When do those lines become fixed? 16.Is there a difference between navigability for title and regulatory navigability? Is there a nexus between the two? Who decides if a river is navigable for title? Who decides regulatory navigability? 17.Is, or can there be a difference between federal navigability and state navigability? Can a river be navigable for title under the state test, but non-navigable under the federal test? Can the state test and federal test be different? 18.Is the river adjoining the tract you are surveying navigable or non- navigable for title? How do you know? Will it make a difference in the survey? Yes! For your state, who determines if a river is navigable for title? [By the way, is there a difference between navigability for title and regulatory navigability? The answer is yes. I know of no state where they are identical. But, in riparian boundaries, statements such as this are dangerous. It seems there is always an exception.] Note that these questions/situations are focused on inland, nontidal rivers and lakes. Just as many questions could be posed for tidal boundaries. The Challenge Each state needs its own manual that addresses its riparian and littoral boundary location principles. Coastal states should include its tidal boundaries. To accomplish this, all riparian/littoral decisions related to boundaries need to be discovered, indexed by topic, read, abstracted, then summarized. With these summaries and aided by learned articles on the subjects, publications and statutes, the legal principles can be stated. The product will be a book on riparian/littoral boundaries specific to the jurisdiction. This has been done for only one state, Arkansas. See “Riparian Boundaries for Arkansas” by the author of this article. Pages: 288. Tables: 30. Figures: 12. Within that book, the answers for each question given above can be found. To start your state’s manual, for the questions/circumstances in the examples given above, do the case law and statute law research necessary to state the legal principle or provide guidance on the matter, specific for your jurisdiction. Cite the applicable decisions and summarize them. Once this is accomplished for each state and the federal lands, someone with high professional knowledge of and experience with riparian/littoral boundaries and who is an excellent writer with lots of energy and unlimited time and resources can edit the resulting tome about inland, nontidal riparian and littoral boundaries and coastal tidal boundaries. It would be a herculean task. That’s why no one has done this to date. This “challenge” is made somewhat in jest, but posing the questions/situations is not. They illustrate how complex riparian boundaries can be, and how state-specific they can be. Dr. Richard Elgin, PS, PE is a surveying practitioner, educator, researcher, collector, and author. He codeveloped the “ASTRO” software products and coauthored the Lietz/Sokkia ephemeris. He wrote The U.S. Public Land Survey System for Missouri, Riparian Boundaries for Arkansas, Shoulda Played the Flute (a memoir of his year flying helicopters in Vietnam), and Riparian Boundaries for Missouri (in press). He owns a large collection of early American surveying equipment, rides a Moots bicycle, and drives an Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior. Dick’s articles have appeared in “American Surveyor” for many years. He may be reached at elgin@ rollanet.org. Because states can develop their own law relative to riparian and littoral boundaries, some riparian boundary issues are very state-specific. Featured Article
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