Diffused Surface Water

Abstract

Diffused surface waters are those waters on the surface of the ground that are of a vagrant character and follow no definite course. They are often referred to as runoff or sheet wash. They fail to establish an identity as a discrete body of water and are lost through evaporation, by percolation into the soil, or by flowing into an established watercourse. When diffused surface waters become part of a natural watercourse they lose their character as surface waters and come under the rules governing watercourses; when they percolate into the soil they come under the rules governing percolating ground water. Flood water that spills over the banks of a watercourse and flows in a diffused manner over the flood plain is viewed in some states as diffused water and in other states as fugitive water from a watercourse.

“Surface water is recognized as a common enemy, which each proprietor may fight off or control as he will or is able, either by retention, diversion, repulsion, or altered transmission; so that no cause of action arises for such interference, even if some injury occurs, causing damage.”

Bochsenius v. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha R. Co. 96 Wis. at 450 (1897)