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Show METHODS OF APPROPRIATING WATER OF WATERCOURSES 307 The Wyoming administrative organization is unique. Acquisition of appro- priative rights (a) is supervised by the State Engineer. Adjudication of rights (b) is a function of the Board of Control, which consists of the State Engineer as president and the four water division superintendents. Distribution of water (c) is under the general supervision of the State Engineer, under whom are the four water division superintendents and the water district commissioners. The commissioners are under the immediate direction of the respective superinten- dents. Preeminence of office of State Engineer.-The title of "State Engineer" has been prominent in the area of water administration. In the public eye it has tended to symbolize the chief water administrator of the State. Boards and commissions likewise have been prominent. In several instances, the State Engineer has been a board member-usually but not invariably the president. In most of the States there has been, at some time, an individual water official designated variously as State Engineer, State Water Commissioner, State Reclamation Engineer, Chief Engineer, or State Hydraulic Engineer. Usually his office was independent, at least with respect to some of its functions. In other cases, this official headed an organization which was part of an overall agency vested with other functions as well-such as the present Chief Engineer, Division of Water Resources of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture. The State Engineer office or an equivalent arrangement currently operates in a majority of the western jurisdictions, although in several of them the exercise of at least some of its water rights functions is subject to a certain amount of supervision by an overriding State agency. In some, such as Colorado and Utah, the State Engineer office has always been an individual agency with respect to discharge of its water rights duties. During part of California's water administration experience, this official performed these duties as head of a division in a State department. The North Dakota State Engineer office was absorbed by the State Water Conservation Commission, of which he became secretary and chief engineer. The Commission's approval is required for the exercise of some of his delegated functions, but not for others. In South Dakota, the duties of the State Engineer pertaining to water rights control were transferred to a newly established State Water Resources Commission. For many years, the officials who administer State water rights control policies-whether designated "State Engineer" or members of a comparable State agency-have maintained an organization known as the Association of Western State Engineers. This organization holds annual meetings in the Western States. Its programs attract Federal, State, and other speakers on current and prospective water problems. The presidency of the association is rotated annually among the States. Changes over the years.-Very few of the agencies and offices that have been vested with supervision over surface water rights laws of 18 Western States (excluding Hawaii, in which there is no such State agency) have escaped |