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Show 290 APPROPRIATION OF WATER running water, but without indicating any formalities that must be or should be observed in so doing.355 In both Territories, for decades, water was appropriated by constructing acequias or ditches, diverting it from streams, and applying it to beneficial use. Statutory Original Statutory Appropriation Procedures The California procedure. -Enactment of the California Civil Code pro- cedure356-which went into effect January 1, 1873, nearly a quarter century after the discovery of gold-was an important historical event. It not only remained California's only formal appropriation procedure for some 40 years, until about a quarter-century after Wyoming's adoption of the administrative procedure, but it also exerted considerable influence on the adoption of elementary statutory procedures in other Western States until the era of administrative procedures was well on its way. The Civil Code made several declarations of substantive water law. These related to: appropriability of water flowing in a river or stream or down a canyon or ravine; cessation of right on cessation of use; changes in exercise of right; commingling of diverted water with other stream waters; priority as between appropriators; noninterference with riparian rights. Procedural sections included: posting of notice at point of intended diversion, stating quantity of water claimed, purpose and place of use, means of diversion; recording notice with county recorder within 10 days; commencement of con- struction work within 60 days after posting of notice; continuance of work diligently and uniterruptedly to completion-which meant conducting the water to the place of use-unless temporarily interrupted by snow or rain. By compli- ance with these rules, the right related back to the time of posting notice. Failure to comply deprived the claimant of the prior right of use as against a subsequent claimant who complied therewith. The California Civil Code procedure was not the exclusive method by which one could appropriate water. While it was in effect, an equally valid nonstatutory appropriation could still be made.357 An advantage of conforming to the pro- cedure, declared in the statute itself, was that it conferred on the claimant the benefit of the doctrine of relation. Other Western States.-The importance of the California Civil Code procedure extended beyond the confines of that State. It became the prototype of the first statutory appropriation procedures adopted in several other western jurisdictions; and it influenced other legislatures as well. Although some 35STerr. Ariz. Bill of Rights, art. 22 (1864); Howell Code, ch. LV, "Of Acequias, or Ir- rigating Canals" (1864). 3S6Cal. Civ. Code § § 1410 to 1422 (1872). 3"Lower Tule River Ditch Co. v. Angiola Water Co., 149 Cal. 496, 499, 86 Pac. 1081 (1906). |