Most ditches I have encountered and all calls for ditches are for drainage ditches used to lower groundwater elevation to allow farming. In every case of a call the ditch is on the property line and serves both properties.
When it comes to maintaining a ditch either landowner should have access to the ditch from either side. Typically the equipment straddles the ditch and a wedge plow or an operating mechanism re-opens the ditch. During such maintenance any pins set in the ditch are distrubed. Ditches are most often in systems and also accomodate upstream fields.
As such these ditches are private right of ways providing drainage access to streams.
The following link should take you to Great Meadows, NJ. The fields to the left have drainage ditches. To the right is Island Dragway. Along the return road on the eastern side is a large ditch in which flows the Pequest River. The Pequest River starts in North Jersey and flowed into the Great Meadows swamp. At the South end of the swamp the river reappeared and flowed West to the Delaware River. After a Supreme Court ruling in 1872 the river channel was dredged and drained the swamp. For decades vegetable farming flourished. Now some is sod farms or regular crops. Each different use favors a different drainage rate so there can be considerable animosity. Recently a group bought a fallow farm and intends to stop maintaining ditches and return it to swamp to compensate for wetlands loses elsewhere. That fight has yet to begin. I have seen up to 75% of the fields in this image area submerged.
Zoom in without recentering.
Paul in PA
Court Ruling On Drainage Ditches, Who Pays?
https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/114/114.US.606.html
Paul in PA
