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trust. The court acknowledged that although it could absolutely divest all landowners who held property pursuant to conveyances made under the 1870 act, it could only do so ifit compensated those owners. Berkeley, pages 533-534. The reason it chose this intermediate course is obvious. The lands which had alxeady been developed were valueless for public trust purposes. Conceivably, the court could have taken the extreme position that these lands should be restored so they could be used for trust purposes. However, by choosing the middle ground and balancing the interests involved, the court set a precedent for resolving future trust disputes. Types of Waters and Uses to Which the Public Trust Doctrine Applies Historically, although apparent that the California public trust doctrine applied to tidelands, navigation, commerce, and fisheries, its application to other waters and other purposes was uncertain. Two cases alleviated much of that uncertainty. In People v. Gold Run Ditch & Mining Co. (1884) 66 Cal. 138, 151-52, the court applied the public trust doctrine to inland waters. In Marks v. Whitney, (1971) 6 Cal.3d 251,259-60, the court expanded the scope of the public trust beyond the traditional purposes of navigation, commerce, and fisheries to include environmental and aesthetic purposes. Gold Run Ditch was a very significant case, as much for its social as its legal impact. The case involved hydraulic mining on the American River and was the death knell for the hydraulic mining in- dustry in California. Hydraulic mining involved spraying water at a high velocity from water cannons against a hillside in order to wash down gravel from which gold was recovered, but most of the sand and gravel tailings washed into rivers, in this case the north fork of the American River. These tailings amounted to nearly 5,000 cubic yards of boulders, sand, and gravel each day. Gold Run Ditch, page 144. The impact of the discharge of these tailings had been dramatic. The beds of both the American River and the Sacramento River (below its confluence with the American River) had risen 6 to 12 feet, increasing the possibility of flooding. Navigation was severely impaired, and the water of the American River was no longer fit for domestic consumption. Gold Run Ditch, page 145. Faced with these facts, the court upheld the lower court's injunction of the company's discharge of debris into the river. Gold Run Ditch, page 152. The court was aware that hydraulic mining was not economi- cally feasible if streams could not be used for the discharge of debris. The courts have now expanded the scope of the public trust beyond the traditional purposes of navigation, commerce, and fisheries to include environmental and aesthetic purposes. Chapter 3 Consumptive and Environmental Uses 81