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Show IRRIGATION AGRICULTURE 159 The common law riparian doctrine was found to be unsuited to water development in the more arid areas. Had the riparian doctrine remained the only accepted rule, the lands contiguous to surface streams would have had the prior claim to the flowing waters, solely by reason of location, and diversions for use on nonriparian lands would have been made at the sufferance of the riparian owners. This would have been the case, regardless of the relative productive capacities of riparian and nonriparian lands. It was natural that some other rule, laying greater emphasis upon beneficial use, and affording protection to enterprises based upon feasibility of diversion of water and application to lands whether or not contiguous to watercourses, should have developed from the necessities of the environment. The alternative doctrine of prior appropriation appeared adequate for this purpose. While by no means a perfect system, it has proved more generally satisfactory for conditions in most of the West than has the common law riparian doctrine. It is implicit in the foregoing statement that, in general, efficient utilization of a limited water supply can contribute as much to the public welfare under a riparian right as under an appropriative right. The difficulty has been that when the unmodified riparian right entitled the holder to use the water inefficiently and wastefully at his own discretion, or to keep the right intact indefinitely while making no use of the water, then the successful assertion of this right could become an impediment to water development. In several States, modifications of riparian principles in the public interest, as the result of conflicts, have consisted of lessening or removing the obstructive aspects of the early common law principles but without repudiating the doctrine completely. Problems involved in the interrelationship of the appropriation and riparian doctrines in the States in which both doctrines are recognized will be referred to later in this chapter as well as in other chapters. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE APPROPRIATION DOCTRINE IN THE WEST Origins of the Appropriation Doctrine The prevailing Western doctrine of prior appropriation, as it is now recognized and applied throughout the 17 contiguous Western States and Alaska, is traceable chiefly to local customs and regulations developed spontaneously on public lands. The basic principles resulted from experience under varying conditions which, however, had an outstanding feature in common-inadequacy of water to supply completely the rapidly growing demands of industry and agriculture with use of the water control facilities then available. With considerable uniformity, these simple but effective principles became formalized into legal doctrine by decisions of courts and enactments of legislatures. Upon this foundation have been built the current complicated and voluminous water codes and case laws of the West. |