In future I won't tag fords/culverts where the satellite imagery doesn't support said observation or if I do not know the area. I'll keep your advice as to how to map fords as well, and will map them as single nodes on a waterway/trail/roadway in future.

Hi Jonrossi. I don't have a source for the waterways data; it's most just closely looking at satellite imagery and other maps to see how they relate. This means I can occasionally get this wrong, as you have mentioned above. I sometimes put fords as points as I have seen it done like this elsewhere on OSM, though I have tended to make them a way recently. Sorry for the late response, as I am a fairly infrequent user.