| OCR Text |
Show Chapter 3. SURFACE WATERS This chapter deals with all classifications of water occurring on the surface of the ground, including natural watercourses, artificial impoundments, springs, and diffused surface water. The latter cate- gory often is referred to in judicial decisions and treatises simply as surface water, but it must be distinguished from water occurring in watercourses, and these distinctions are discussed in section 3.7 of this chapter. 3.1 Method or Acquiring Eights a. In General There are a great number of ways in which rights to use water may be acquired. This chapter largely confines itself to a discussion of the ways in which traditional riparian rights are acquired and ways in which water rights are initiated and perfected through eastern permits and under western appropriation systems. Once such rights are acquired, they may be sold and transferred in the marketplace, and the purchaser can thus acquire a riparian or ap- propriation water right through the act of purchase rather than through the traditional means of initiating the right directly from the watercourse. Some of the problems encountered in the transfer and sale of water rights are discussed in section 3.3 of this chapter. Bights to use water can also be acquired through contractual ar- rangements between the one holding the water right and the one desiring to use all or part of the water under such right, and these arrangements are governed by the law of contracts. It might be noted that substantial water is supplied under projects constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers, usually pursuant to water use contracts. The typical practice under Corps projects is to simply contract a certain amount of storage space to the water users, who are obligated to acquire their actual water rights under State law. Thus, the Corps facility simply impounds the water and makes it available for delivery to those who have acquired water rights under State law and who have storage space in the reservoir. The typical current practice in Bureau of Reclamation projects, on the other hand, is for the Bureau of Reclamation to acquire the water right directly from the State for all water to be stored, and then to wholesale such water to a water district, which in turn retails the water to users pursuant to delivery contracts executed with the water users, all at a cost which is calculated to amortize the re- imbursable costs of constructing the storage facility and to pay ex- penses of operation and maintenance. As an incidental matter, irriga- tion water ordinarily enjoys a subsidy under reclamation projects, 27 |
