Mountain Lake Mining Co. v. Midway Irr. Co.

149 P. 929, 47 Utah 346, 1915 Utah LEXIS 120
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 11, 1915
DocketNo. 2583
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 149 P. 929 (Mountain Lake Mining Co. v. Midway Irr. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mountain Lake Mining Co. v. Midway Irr. Co., 149 P. 929, 47 Utah 346, 1915 Utah LEXIS 120 (Utah 1915).

Opinions

McCARTY, J.

(after stating the facts as above).

1 Appellants earnestly contend that the portion of the court’s •decision, wherein it is held that all of the water issuing from the Mountain Lake Tunnel in excess of three and one-half second feet was developed and collected by the •driving of the tunnel, and is water which had not theretofore found its way to the surface of the earth so as to become a [353]*353tributary to or source of supply for any known surface stream, is not only unsupported by, but is contrary to, tbe evidence. Tbis is tbe decisive question in tbe case, and tbe only one we deem necessary to consider.

The record shows that tbe construction of tbe tunnel was begun in 1897. Tbe water at tbe Beuhler Switch was encountered in 1902.

William J. Knight, a director and tbe general manager of respondent company, testified that,, from a point near tbe mouth of the tunnel, “there are little streams coming in along until you reach what they call the big spring at fhe Beuhler Switch.” The evidence, without conflict, shows that, when the water at the Beuhler Switch was encountered in the tunnel, the volume was so great that the men driving the tunnel were compelled to suspend work thereon for ten or twelve days, during which time the water gradually receded. And, when work was resumed, a curve was made in the tunnel at the Beuhler Switch to avoid the rush of water coming in at that point.

R. T. Kimball, a witness for the respondent, testified, regarding the flow of water at the Beuhler Switch and a flow encountered in the tunnel about one hundred feet beyond, as follows:

“I saw the flow of water coming from the tunnel after striking water at the Beuhler Switch. * * * When we got the flow of water from the Beuhler Switch, we had a great pressure, then after a while it dropped off. * * * They had to hold up in their work and I was there during the time they were waiting. * * * I should say it was between three weeks and a month before it dropped down to what I call the normal flow. * * * We drove the tunnel somewhere about 300 feet .beyond the Beuhler Switch. Within that distance (something less than 100 feet from the switch) we struck another flow of water. Compared to the other it was light.” That the water at the Beuhler Switch “diminished, possibly to an amount equal to the water we struck.” Q. And then you went about 300 feet and struck another flow? A. We didn’t strike a flow, just a little seepage.”

[354]*354Work on the tunnel at this point was not resumed until May, the following year (1903).

William Witt, one of respondent’s principal witnesses, who was in charge of the operations when work was resumed in the tunnel, testified in part as follows:

“The tunnel was in approximately 180 feet beyond the Beuhler Switch when I commenced. There was a stream of water coming in between the Beuhler Switch and the face of the tunnel when I went there at one place in particular. About thirty feet beyond where this stream of water was when I went there, we struck another flow of water, and the one behind all dried up. I cannot recall another instance where the stream entirely dried up as we prosecuted the work ahead.”

Fred Hicken, another of respondent’s witnesses, testified:

“I went there in 1903. The tunnel was in about two hundred feet beyond the Beuhler Switch.” That there was a stream of water flowing into the tunnel beyond the Beuhler Switch and about fifty feet from the face. That “from this stream to the face water occurred seeping and dripping. From there on I would estimate the tunnel was driven from fifty to one hundred feet. Then we struck a considerable stream coming in through a fissure or crack in the rock. The dripping I referred to dried after we passed the water course. * * * "We next struck a considerable flow in one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet. There were drippings before we got to that between the spring we struck before and the one I now speak of, but no water came in in seams or streams. When we struck the next stream the drippings ceased and dried up. ’ ’

This witness further testified:

“Every fifty or one hundred feet we would come to a water course, some large and some small, and as we passed the streams there would be more or less dripping until we came to the next, and after that water was let into the tunnel through the water course the dripping behind in the main would cease. Not every time, but generally. We struck one in 1907, * * * about 2,500 feet beyond the Beuhler' Switch. * * * I could not say whether the water was [355]*355coining through, seams. It was coming in so thick we didn’t care to look.”

Regarding the manner in which the water came into the tunnel as the work thereon progressed, whether through seams or fissures in the rocks or from seeps, and the effect the tapping and opening up of a flow of water would have on the preceding streams or seepages, there is no substantial conflict in the evidence.

One of appellant’s witnesses, a Mr. Sonderegger, who worked in the tunnel from 1901 to 1910, inclusive, testified on this point in part as follows:

“The water struck at Beuhler Switch flowed with a big rush for about a week and then settled down to its normal size. # * I was there when the work continued on. We struck some water all along. ■ As we went on it dried up behind us. The water continued to decrease as we opened up new channels of water in prosecuting the work. It decreased behind and at the Beuhler Switch by degrees. For quite a ways on there was quite a quantity of water near the face all the time. When I ceased work there the tunnel was in something over 5,000 feet. The water did. not diminish behind as we progressed with the tunnel all the way. In some places the water kept running after we went on. The large flows did not continue the same size. They did not diminish quite as much as the Beuhler spring did.”

Ernest Kuhler, another of appellants’ witnesses, who worked in the tunnel, testified:

- “I commenced work there/in 1902. * * * I remember the striking a large flow of water at the Beuhler Switch. # # ■# There was so much water in there we couldn’t do anything. * * * and we never went to work until seven or eight days after that. * * * The flush of water ran off in about ten or twelve days. * * * I worked there about a month after we struck the water at the Beuhler Switch. The next year I began again. We struck more water as we worked beyond the Beuhler Switch. I did not find the Beuhler Switch water flowing when I went back in 1903— not all of it. There had been a change. There was hardly any water in the Beuhler Switch.1 There was water, running [356]*356from other places in the tunnel near the face. * * * When I resumed work in 1903, I should judge there was about one-tenth as much water coming from the Beuhler Switch as when it receded to its normal flow after we struck it in 1902. As we prosecuted the work at the tunnel and droye the face in further, the water would diminish, and in certain places it ceased.”

Some of the respondent’s witnesses, who were connected with the construction of the tunnel, testified that in their opinion, and others testified unqualifiedly, that since 1902, as the work progressed in the tunnel, there was a gradual increase of the flow at the portal of the tunnel.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
149 P. 929, 47 Utah 346, 1915 Utah LEXIS 120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mountain-lake-mining-co-v-midway-irr-co-utah-1915.