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Show Particularly as to the latter, concepts of rights have varied. Recent State legislation has trended toward conservation of ground water on the rea- sonable-use basis. A similar trend would apply to ground water the same legal principles of use and administration as govern surface streams. In the case of return flow, most courts uphold the right of an original appropriator to use it until abandoned, whereupon it becomes subject to downstream appropriation. Differences in basic systems of State water law present further problems where equitable ap- portionment of interstate streams is sought through original suits in the Supreme Court or through the increasingly favored medium of interstate compacts. Irrigation Water Companies-Irrigation Dis- tricts.-Both incorporated and unincorporated water companies and associations serve as mediums for group irrigation development. By contract or through ownership of stock, the water user is subject to the payment of assessments levied to meet construction, or operation and main- tenance costs. Collection of such assessments may be enforced by refusal to deliver water, fore- closure of liens on the land, sale of stock and the accompanying right to the use of water, or by other devices premised upon contract. To overcome the limitations of organizational and assessing power of such organizations, statutes in all of the 17 Western States provide for irri- gation districts, the predominant vehicle for group irrig-ation development. California's early Wright Act was frequently the model for such statutes. Ascendancy of multiple-purpose proj- ects was accompanied by statutes authorizing districts with still broader powers and wider bene- fit and cost participation. Examples include the Colorado Water Conservancy District Act, the New Mexico Conservancy District-Reclamation Contract Act, and the Metropolitan Water Dis- trict Acts of California and Utah. Important in the financing of irrigation and similar districts is the general power through the issuance of bonds to incur debt, within prescribed limitations, as a general obi igation of the district. Also important is the power to levy assessments upon lands of the district, generally on the basis of benefits received, with the power to sell the poperty for non- payment of assessments. Reclamation Law.-Increasing Federal recog- nition of the importance of irrigation appears in a series of acts, commencing with an 1866 statute which had the effect of recognizing appropriative rights on the public domain. There followed an 1875 provision for disposal of irrigable land; the 1877 Desert Land Act; an 1888 provision for surveys; an 1890 reservation of canal rights-of- way, which paved the way for a Federal reclama- tion act; and the 1894 Carey Act, granting desert lands to States for reclamation. Assumption of substantial Federal responsi- bilities for irrigation development finally emerged with the Reclamation Act of 1902. It provides the broad foundation for Federal establishment of irrigation projects in the Western States, through non-interest-bearing but reimbursable expenditures from the revolving Reclamation Fund, established originally from proceeds from sales of public lands. As previously noted, courts soon found basis for this legislation in the power of Congress, under the Property Clause of the Constitution, to im- prove public lands to make them marketable. The Supreme Court has recently suggested that Congress may authorize large-scale irrigation projects under the general welfare power, the sole requirement being that the power be exercised "for the common benefit as distinguished from some mere local purpose." Federal irrigation and related activities are today performed almost entirely by the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the In- terior. Through June 30, 1949, Federal funds made available for carrying out these functions reached a total of about $1,800,000,000. More than 175 general and special acts of Con- gress have amended and supplemented the basic 1902 act. Outstanding among principles of the basic statute which endure today are those con- templating repayments into the Reclamation Fund of the costs of providing the direct water- user benefits, in the case of irrigation water users on an interest-free basis. Likewise enduring is the principle aimed at creation of family-size home- steads through acreage limitations. The act's pro- 286 |