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Show Chapter 44. UTAH CONTENTS Page 1. Development of Utah Water Law_____________________________ 715 2. State Organizational Structure for Water Administration and Control__ 715 2.1 Administration of Water Rights_______________________ 715 2.2 Resolution of Water Use Conflicts_____________________ 717 2.3 Other Agencies Having Water Resource Responsibilities____ 719 3. Surface Waters___________________________________________ 721 3.1 Method of Acquiring Rights_________________________ 721 3.2 Nature and Limit of Rights__________________________ 724 3.3 Changes, Sales, and Transfers________________________ 726 3.4 Loss of Rights____________________________________ 728 3.5 Storage Waters, Artificial Lakes, and Ponds_____________ 730 3.6 Springs__________________________________________ 730 3.7 Diffused Surface Waters_____________________________ 730 4. Ground Water____________________________________________ 731 Publications Available________________________________________ 734 DISCUSSION 1. Development of Utah Water Law The Utah law of water rights evolved from the early irrigation practices initiated by the first Mormon pioneers to arrive in the Great Salt Lake Valley. These pioneers were the first Anglo-Saxons in the United States to practice irrigation on an extensive scale.1 Because of the arid nature of the area, the diversion and application of the water to the surrounding lands to produce crops made the adoption of the appropriation doctrine a necessity to accomplish the settlement of this territory. In its earliest decisions involving water, the territorial supreme court recognized the appropriation doctrine as the basic water law of the territory 2 and in later decisions< the Utah Supreme Court ruled that the riparian concept of water rights had never constituted a part of Utah water law.3 The Utah consti- tution recognized and confirmed all existing rights to the use of water for any useful and beneficial purpose, and the legislature sub- sequently declared all water in the State, whether above or under the ground, to be the property of the public.4 2. State Organizational Structure for Water Administration and Control 2.1 Administration of Water Bights A. HISTORICAL The office of the State engineer was created by statute in 1897, but only limited responsibility for water administration was con- iHutchins and Jensen, The Utah Law of Water Bights, 1 (1965). 2 Crane v. Winaor, 2 Utah 248 (1878) and Munroe v. Ivie, 2 Utah 535 (1880). 3 Gunnison Irr. Co. v. Ounnison Highland Canal Co., 52 Utah 347, 174 Pac. 852 (1918). * Utah Const., art. XVII, sec. 1; Utah Code Ann. sec. 73-1-1. 715 |
