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Show 39 subsidy for water development had an immediate impact on the development of water policy in Utah. 2 Simultaneously, water policy underwent changes in states adjacent to Utah that also demanded attention from Utah policymakers. This was particularly true of Colorado and Wyoming. Prompted by conflicts growing from untrammeled individualism in water development, both states had tried to set up systems placing the appropriation, distribution, and utilization of water resources under the control of the state. To accomplish this, constitutional and legislative policy had been worked out recognizing the public's interest in water resources and setting up machinery to administer water use and settle disputes. In Colorado, a system had evolved that undertook to maintain the basic division of power between the branches of government by placing administrative authority with a state engineer and a board of control and by placing dispute settlement authority in the courts. Feeling that hydrological expertise was needed in both functions of government, Wyoming streamlined its system by giving its board of control power to settle disputes as well as allocate and administer water rights. 3 A major figure in these developments was Elwood Mead, who was first a professor of irrigation engineering at the Colorado Agricultural College, then state engineer in Wyoming, and finally Chief of Irrigation Investigations in the United States Department of Agriculture. Convinced that efficient water management required public ownership, centralized control, and scientific understanding of water's physical properties, he worked tirelessly to establish policy that would apply these principles at every level, including the judiciary. His influence on the West generally and upon Utah in particular, can hardly be overstated. During the years directly following Utah's attainment of statehood, he and his subordinates were in Utah conducting studies and working actively with Utah policymakers to update what by the late 1890s was recognized to be an inadequate system. 4 In the chapters that follow, the emergence of water development and management institutions by the state of Utah and the success with which they functioned will be examined. 2State of Utah, Laws of the State of Utah Passed at the Special and First Regular Sessions of the Legislature of the State of Utah, Held at Salt Lake City, the State Capital, in January, February, March, and April, 1896, also the Enabling Act Passed by Congress and the State Constitution Adopted by Convention May 8,1895 and Ratified by the People at the General Election, November 5,1895 ( Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press Company, 1896). Section 12 of the Enabling Act for the State of Utah granted 500,000 acres of public land to the state to be used for the purpose of establishing irrigation reservoirs. The section reads in part as follows: .. . the following grants of land are hereby made to the said state, for the purposes indicated, namely;.. For the establishment of permanent water reservoirs for irrigating purposes, five hundred thousand acres; . . . The said State of Utah shall not be entitled to any further or other grants of land for any purpose than as expressly provided in this Act; and the lands granted by this section shall be held, appropriated, and disposed of exclusively for the purposes herein mentioned, in such manner as the legislature of the State may provide. The legislature established the Utah State Board of Land Commissioners to dispose of all land grants and manage the monies derived from the sales. For a good recent treatment see Robert G. Dunbar, Forging New Rights in Western Waters ( Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983). For a traditional insider's statement see Elwood Mead, Irrigation Institutions: A Discussion of the Economic and Legal Questions created by the Growth of Irrigated Agriculture in the West ( New York: The Macmillan Company, London: Macmillan & Company Ltd., 1903). 4Ibid.; and George Thomas, The Development of Institutions Under Irrigation: With Special Reference to Early Utah Conditions ( New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920),; and Elwood Mead, et al.. Report of Irrigation Investigations in Utah ( Washington D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1903). Also see notes 2 and 3, chapter 5, p 80 and 81. |
