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Show 302 APPROPRIATION OF WATER administration principles in declaring control over rights to the use of public waters. To this end, a summary of the extent of western administrative policy follows: (1) Appropriation of water. In all but 3 of the 19 Western States, an in- tending appropriator of water of a surface watercourse is required by statute to make application to a State official for a permit to make the appropriation. In most but not all of these 16 States, the statutory procedure is declared or commonly considered to be the exclusive method of initiating such an appropriation. Idaho is a definite exception, as noted later under "Current Administrative Procedures-Administrative-Exclusiveness of the statutory procedure." In Nebraska and Texas, although the appropriation is not complete until water has been diverted and applied to beneficial use, there are no statutory formalities that must be followed after issuance of the permit. The other States in this group provide for supervision over matters connected with completion of the appropriation and final issuance of a certificate or license evidencing the perfected right. The excepted three States are: Hawaii, in which the doctrine of prior appropriation is not recognized. Colorado, in which diversion and application to beneficial use completes the appropriation, which may then be judicially recognized. Montana, which provides by statute for nonadministrative methods of appropriating: (a) unadjudicated water, by posting notice and filing a copy in the county records;405 and (b) adjudicated water, the process including an engineering survey, petition to court, and decree of the court.406 (2) Adjudication of water rights. All 19 Western States have some kind of special statutory procedure relating to the determination and adjudication of water rights. Necessarily, inasmuch as these procedures involve questions of ownership and exercise or private property rights, the processes are primarily judicial and the final pronouncements are made in court judgments and decrees. However, in most of them, there are provisions for active participation of State administrative agencies in some capacity. This may be by way of making preliminary determinations of the water rights, or assisting the courts by obtaining and providing hydrologic information for use in reaching the judicial decisions. The Wyoming system provided the earliest integrated administrative-judicial procedures under which the administrative body makes a determination or adjudication of all relative rights on a stream or stream system, which is final unless appealed to the courts.407 This was followed in Nebraska, where it is still in operation.408 It was also copied by the Texas Legislature,409 held to violate 405Mont. Rev. Codes Ann. § § 89-810 to -814 (1964). 406Id. § § 89-829 to -844. 4O7Wyo. Laws 1890-91, ch. 8, Stat. Ann. § § 41-165 to -200 (1957). 408Nebr. Laws 1895, ch. 69, Rev. Stat. § § 41-165 to-231 (Supp. 1968). 409 Tex. Gen. Laws. 1917, ch. 8 8. |