TITLE 58

PUBLIC LANDS

CHAPTER 13

NAVIGATIONAL ENCROACHMENTS

58-1302.  Encroachment on navigable lakes — Definitions. (a) "Navigable lake" means any permanent body of relatively still or slack water, including man-made reservoirs, not privately owned and not a mere marsh or stream eddy, and capable of accommodating boats or canoes. This definition does not include man-made reservoirs where the jurisdiction thereof is asserted and exclusively assumed by a federal agency.

(b)  "Beds of navigable lakes" means the lands lying under or below the "natural or ordinary high water mark" of a navigable lake and, for purposes of this act only, the lands lying between the natural or ordinary high water mark and the artificial high water mark, if there be one.

(c)  "Natural or ordinary high water mark" means the high water elevation in a lake over a period of years, uninfluenced by man-made dams or works, at which elevation the water impresses a line on the soil by covering it for sufficient periods to deprive the soil of its vegetation and destroy its value for agricultural purposes.

(d)  "Artificial high water mark" means the high water elevation above the natural or ordinary high water mark resulting from construction of man-made dams or control works and impressing a new and higher vegetation line.

(e)  "Low water mark" means that line or elevation on the bed of the lake marked or located by the average low water elevations over a period of years and marks the point to which the riparian rights of adjoining landowners extend as a matter of right, in aid of their right to use the waters of the lake for purposes of navigation.

(f)  "Riparian or littoral rights" means only the rights of owners or lessees of land adjacent to navigable waters of the lake to maintain their adjacency to the lake and to make use of their rights as riparian or littoral owners or lessees in building or using aids to navigation but does not include any right to make any consumptive use of the waters of the lake.

(g)  "Line of navigability" means a line located at such distance waterward of the low water mark established by the length of existing legally permitted encroachments, water depths waterward of the low water mark, and by other relevant criteria determined by the board when a line has not already been established for the body of water in question.

(h)  "Encroachments in aid of navigation" means and includes docks, piers, floats, pilings, breakwaters, boat ramps, channels or basins, and other such aids to the navigability of the lake, on, in or above the beds or waters of a navigable lake. The term "encroachments in aid of navigation" may be used interchangeably herein with the term "navigational encroachments."

(i)  "Encroachments not in aid of navigation" means and includes all other encroachments on, in or above the beds or waters of a navigable lake, including landfills or other structures not constructed primarily for use in aid of the navigability of the lake. The term "encroachments not in aid of navigation" may be used interchangeably herein with the term "nonnavigational encroachments."

(j)  "Board" means the board of land commissioners of the state of Idaho or its authorized representative.

(k)  "Plans" means maps, sketches, engineering drawings, aerial and other photographs, word descriptions, and specifications sufficient to describe the extent, nature and approximate location of the proposed encroachment and the proposed method of accomplishing the same.

History:

[(58-1302) 58-143, as added by 1974, ch. 243, sec. 2, p. 1608; 1990, redesignated, ch. 362, sec. 2, p. 980; am. 2006, ch. 111, sec. 1, p. 305; am. 2006, ch. 134, sec. 1, p. 389.]