| OCR Text |
Show 506 THE APPROPRIATIVE RIGHT Relevant to this topic is the specific authorization in the water rights statute of Texas for the granting of "seasonal" permits.351 The right to which a seasonal permit relates is limited to the portion of the calendar year expressly stated in the permit. The rules and regulations of the Texas Water Rights Commission describe the seasonal permit as limiting the taking of water to certain months or dates during the year. "This -type of permit is usually granted where irrigation is desired for seasonal crops or where the applicant proposes to appropriate water to fill an off-channel reservoir during the wet season for use during the dry season."352 Duty of Water Significance of the term.-"In determining what is a reasonable quantity for beneficial uses," said the California Supreme Court in 1935, "it is the policy of the state to require within reasonable limits the highest and greatest duty from the waters of the state."353 In the absence of a statute definitely regulating the duty of water, the question becomes one of fact for the court in each case to determine on the evidence presented to it; and "it is apparent there can be no exact uniform rule for computing the duty or reasonable quantity of water for irrigation to be applied in all cases alike."354 "Although," said the Colorado Supreme Court in 1954, "the expression 'Duty of Water', in the opinions of some present-day scholarly hydrologists and technical engineers, may be outmoded, provincial, unscientific and otherwise objectionable, nevertheless it is a term well understood and accepted by every rancher and farmer who has had practical experience in the artificial irrigation of land for the production of crops. It is that measure of water, which by careful management and use, without wastage, is reasonably required to be applied to any given tract of land for such period of time as may be adequate to produce therefrom a maximum amount of such crops as ordinarily are grown thereon. It is not a hard and fast unit of measurement, but is variable according to conditions."355 The term "duty of water"-so generally used some decades ago-has not been eliminated from western water law parlance. It is nevertheless true that other terms have come into prominence, and are being increasingly used, not only in technical literature but also in litigation over rights to the use of water. 3S1 Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. Ann. art. 7467c(l) (Supp. 1970). 3S2Tex. Water Rights Comm'n, "Rules, Regulations and Modes of Procedure," rule 205.2 (1970 Rev., Jan. 1970). 353 Tiilare In. Dist. v. Lindsay-Strathmore In. Dist., 3 Cal. (2d) 489, 547, 45 Pac. (2d) 972 (1935). 3SAJoerger v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 207 Cal. 8, 21-22, 276 Pac. 1017 (1929). ^Farmers Highline Canal & Res. Co. v. Golden, 129 Colo. 575, 584-585, 272 Pac. (2d) 629 (1954). |
