PRIA Logo™
Title 43, Public LandsRelease 119-102

§948 Application to Existing and Future Canals

Title 43 › CHAPTER 22 — RIGHTS-OF-WAY AND OTHER EASEMENTS IN PUBLIC LANDS › § 948

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Applies the filing rules to every canal, ditch, and reservoir, built before or after, by a corporation, person, or group, once the required certificates and maps are filed. People or groups must file a map with the Secretary of the Interior and the local land office, give owner name(s), and include any articles of association. Plats filed before March 3, 1891 get the same benefits from their filing date. Any section not finished within five years after it is located loses the rights for the unfinished part.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §948

Public Lands, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The provisions of sections 946 to 949 of this title shall apply to all canals, ditches, or reservoirs, heretofore or hereafter constructed, whether constructed by corporations, individuals, or association of individuals, on the filing of the certificates and maps therein provided for. If such ditch, canal, or reservoir has been or shall be constructed by an individual or association of individuals, it shall be sufficient for such individual or association of individuals to file with the Secretary of the Interior, and with the officer, as the Secretary of the Interior may designate, of the land office where said land is located, a map of the line of such canal, ditch, or reservoir, as in case of a corporation, with the name of the individual owner or owners thereof, together with the articles of association, if any there be. Plats filed before March 3, 1891, shall have the benefits of sections 946 to 949 of this title from the date of their filing, as though filed thereunder: Provided, That if any section of said canal or ditch shall not be completed within five years after the location of said section, the rights therein granted shall be forfeited as to any uncompleted section of said canal, ditch, or reservoir, to the extent that the same is not completed at the date of the forfeiture.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Repeal;

Savings Provision

Section repealed by Pub. L. 94–579, title VII, § 706(a), Oct. 21, 1976, 90 Stat. 2793, effective on and after Oct. 21, 1976, insofar as applicable to the issuance of rights-of-way over, upon, under, and through the public lands and lands in the National Forest System. Such repeal not to be construed as terminating any valid lease, permit, patent, etc., existing on Oct. 21, 1976, see section 701 of Pub. L. 94–579, set out as a note under section 1701 of this title.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

For

Transfer of Functions

of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out under section 1451 of this title. “Officer, as the Secretary of the Interior may designate” substituted for “register” on authority of section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, which abolished all registers of district lands offices and transferred functions of register of district land office to Secretary of the Interior. See section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, set out as a note under section 1 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 948

Title 43, Public Lands

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102