Opinion No. (1979)

REQUESTED BY: Robert H. Sindt, Buffalo County Attorney, P.O. Box 67, Kearney, Nebraska, 68847. When a county road intersects a natural watercourse, and after damming of the watercourse by abutting landowners, the culvert or tube is removed from the county road, does the county have a duty to replace the culvert when the upper landowner removes the dam?

Yes.

The general rule is stated in Wilson Concrete Co. v.County of Sarpy, 189 Neb. 312, 202 N.W.2d 597, which held:

"It is the duty of those who build structures in a natural watercourse to provide for the passage through such obstruction of all…