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Show ROTATION IN USE OF WATER 617 The purpose of such legislation, whether expressed or implied, is to enable irrigators to exercise their water rights more efficiently, and thus to bring about more economical use of available water supplies. Nevada's authorization is made "to the end that each user may have an irrigation head of at least 2 cubic feet per second." Most of these statutes confer this right upon users of water who own lands to which water rights are attached or appurtenant. Kansas extends it to proprietors of two or more irrigation works who, with the written consent of their water users, agree to rotate all or part of their combined supply. Arizona and Oregon provide for written agreements in accordance with which the local State administrative official makes the agreed distribution. Washington requires approval of the local watermaster or the State Director of Ecology. In Wyoming, prior written notice of intention to rotate must be given to the district water commissioner. The Kansas statute requires that the agreement be delivered to the superintendent of the ditch, conduit, reservoir or lateral and, in the event the agreement covers more than one season, that the agreement be recorded with the county register of deeds. In Nevada, Washington, and Wyoming, like authorization is also granted to an individual user who holds water rights of more than one priority to rotate in their use. Kansas extends the privilege also to users of water from irrigation works who agree in writing among themselves to rotate their water supplies. Nebraska authorizes rotation in cases in which the statutory allotment of continuous flow for irrigation of an area of 40 acres or less is too small for proper distribution and application of water. Necessarily, whether or not written into the enabling legislation, rotation practices are lawful only when their exercise inflicts no injury upon nonparticipants. None of the statutes purports to divest any appropriator of any part of a quantity of water to which he is entitled by virtue of his priority, or of the time at which he is entitled to divert it. On the contrary, there is included in a majority of them a specific condition that the rotation be practiced without injury to other appropriators or infringement of their water rights. A section of the Oklahoma law relating to the organization and operation of irrigation districts provides for rotation of streamflow among different localities in time of water shortage, the apportionment to be made with due regard to existing rights by water commissioners consisting of chairmen of the boards of directors of the districts affected.121 This section was identical with provisions in other early irrigation district laws of several Western States. It is doubtful, however, that the provision was ever put into effect on any substantial scale in any State, for it conflicts with procedures for distribution lOkla. Stat. Ann. tit. 82, § 201 (1970). |
