| OCR Text |
Show INTRODUCTION: UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGES AND THE PROCESS Water resources, their use, and their administration have been at the center of attention for much of Utah's history. This thesis seeks not only to record the emergence of the public policies, agencies, and institutions, which are utilized to administer Utah's water resources, but to explain the forces which created them. Purpose of the Thesis The aim of this study is to outline the evolution of the legal and social institutions involved in the state of Utah's water resource administration and management. The method of analysis will be to examine successive time periods in Utah's history, to identify the forces that produced changes in social and legal water institutions, and, within this context, to evaluate the success or failure of the changes. The purpose is not to suggest alternative methods or to criticize particular laws or institutions, but to explain the process of administration as it moved toward the present system. The year 1847 marked the beginning of permanent settlement and the management of water resources. This thesis begins with that year. By 1947 the essential components of the system in present use ( 1989) had been developed; this study concludes at that date. An Overview of Institutions Laws, institutions, and social customs regulate the development and use of water resources in Utah. The social and legal aspects of this structure are interwoven. Each contributes to the effectiveness of the other. Because of its important role in the initial phases of Utah's settlement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormons, set the first water policy and provided the initial administrative framework. When more rigorous controls and guidelines were needed than could be provided through the direct application of the church's administrative machinery, public institutions were established, many of which reflected Mormon social values and the church's institutional structure. Over the years individual water users, communities, the church, the State of Deseret, the Territory of Utah, privately acting individuals with primarily profit motives, the federal government, and the state of Utah have all contributed to the development of water policy and the institutions by which it has been administered. Although Mormon pioneers had a variety of temporal objectives, their most pressing practical need was the development of methods that would enable them to survive in an arid environment. Thus pressed, they developed social institutions and methods of settlement that enabled them to extend their influence over a large geographical area. Few factors figure more largely in this than did the values and practices by which they utilized water. Included were such principles as the priority of the public interest, beneficial use, collective development, and wide distribution of water and its benefits. In the early years of settlement ( and beyond in newly settled areas), church institutions sufficed. As the demands on limited water supplies intensified, legal institutions developed. The territorial legislature influenced the pattern of water development and determined the |
