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Show 731 tion by the Department of water districts to include stream systems or independent sources of supply the rights of use of which have been adjudicated; for the election of watermasters by holders of adjudicated rights; and for the powers and duties of the watermasters and the responsibilities of the water users.106 Kansas The water law of Kansas is particularly noteworthy in the funda- mental change that has occurred recently in the relative importance of the appropriation and common-law doctrines. In 1944 the Kansas Supreme Court rendered a decision strongly reaffirming the common-law right of the landowner to running water and ground water on his land, as against an attempted appropriation. In 1945 the legislature passed an act intended to establish the effectiveness of the appropriation doc- trine, as against claimants under the common law. In 1949 this legisla- tion was approved unqualifiedly by the supreme court. The first legislation authorizing the appropriation of water, enacted in 1886, provided for the posting and filing of notices of appropriation.107 In 1917 the legislature authorized appropriations of surface or ground waters initiated by application to the Kansas Water Commission, the duties of which were transferred in 1927 to the Division of Water Resources of the State Board of Agriculture.108 The two methods of making appropriations were in effect until 1941, when the original 1886 provisions were repealed.109 In 1945 the legislature declared that no appropriative right could be acquired without first obtaining the approval of the Chief Engineer of the Division of Water Resources, except in the case of persons using water for domestic purposes as defined in the statute.110 Apparently, the exclusiveness of the statutory procedure is established for uses of water other than those so excepted.111 Prior to the enactment in 1886 of the earliest appropriation statute, the Kansas Supreme Court had stated, first, that the riparian right ex- tended to the entire flow of the stream "without diminution or altera- 308 Idaho Code, §§ 42-601 to 42-802. 107 Kans. Laws 1886, ch. 115. 108 Kans. Laws 1917, ch. 172; Gen. Stats. Ann. 1935, §§ 24-901 to 24-905. "•Kans. Laws 1941, ch. 261. 110Kans. Laws 1945, ch. 390; Gen. Stats. Supp. 1947, § 82a-705. "'Do- mestic uses' means the use of water for household purposes, the watering of live- stock, poultry, farm and domestic animals and the irrigation of gardens and lawns." M1The Kansas Supreme Court, in Clark v. Allaman, 71 Kans. 206, 240, 80 Pac. 571 (1905), stated that prior to 1886 there had been no recognition in Kansas of rights to the use of water by priority of possession, and that local customs to that effect had been invalid. |