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Show METHODS OF APPROPRIATING WATER OF WATERCOURSES 309 In other States, to cope with growing water needs, increases in personnel have been made to discharge properly the statutory functions of water rights control. And additional duties pertaining to conservation and development of water supplies either have been added to those of the existing organization, or have been vested in new agencies with which the State Engineer may or may not be associated. Along with water agency reorganizations have gone some reassignments of the three water rights control functions-appropriation of water, determination of conflicting water rights, and distribution of public waters to the users. Trends in the several States with respect to policies of concentrating all three water rights functions in one agency, or of dividing them among more than one, may be charted as follows-with the caution that vesting certain functions in the State Engineer, and others in a board of which the State Engineer is a member, is listed as dividing the functions between two agencies: (1) No change in policy: (a) Concentration of all functions in a single agency: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, (b) Dividing functions between two agencies: Wyoming. (2) Functions originally consolidated in one agency, later divided between two: California. (3) Functions originally divided between agencies, later consolidated in one: Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota. (4) Functions originally divided between agencies, later consolidated in one, still later divided between two: North Dakota, Oregon. In addition to the foregoing policy changes with respect to 16 States, all functions concentrated in a single agency were: (a) increased in number: Kansas, (b) Reduced and later increased in number: Texas. Declarations of unconstitutionality of statutory provisions by the Texas Supreme Court resulted in elimination of the adjudication and distribution functions from the water rights statute for several years until the reenactment of such provisions in modified form in 1967. Comparable decisions in Idaho and South Dakota led to modifications of statutory adjudication provisions but without completely eliminating this function from the State programs. Changes in the several States. -Under the ensuing paragraph headings by States, the successive changes in each of these 18 Western States are indicated with respect to both agencies and functions. Numerals in parentheses are used to designate original, intermediate, and current periods. Letters in parentheses refer to the three basic functions of (a) appropriating water, (b) participa- tion in water rights adjudication, (c) distribution of water, (d) all three functions. Alaska.- (1) Original and current. Department of Natural Resources: (d) All functions. Arizona.-(I) Original. State Water Commissioner: (d) all functions. (2) Intermediate. State Land Commissioner: (d) all functions. (3) Current. State Land Department: (d) all functions. |