OCR Text |
Show Where a party has filed his declaration of intention to reclaim a tract of desert land by conducting water on the same, the act for the sale of desert lands of March 3> 1877 (19 Stat., 377), makes the provision: That the right to the use of water by the person so conducting the same on or to any tract of desert land of six hundred and forty acres shall depend upon bona fide prior appropriation; and such right shall not exceed the amount of water actually appropriated and necessarily used for the purpose of irrigation and reclamation; and all surplus water over and above such actual appropriation and use, together with the water of all lakes, rivers, and other sources of water supply upon the public lands, and not navigable, shall remain and be held free for the appropriation and use of the public for irrigation, mining, and manufacturing purposes, subject to existing rights. The duty of passing upon a desert entryman's right to a patent, as in other cases, is devolved upon the Land Department, and in the discharge of this duty the Department must necessarily pass on the question of his right, secured by a bona fide prior appropriation, to a sufficient quantity of water to permanently reclaim the tract of land entered from its desert condition. The jurisdiction to hear and determine the question of this right is, from the nature of things, inherent in the Land Department. Therefore, in sustaining the local officers in overruling the claimant's motion to dismiss the contest, on the grounds of want 111-47 |
Source |
Original book: [State of Arizona, complainant v. State of California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, Coachella Valley County Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, City of Los Angeles, California, City of San Diego, California, and County of San Diego, California, defendants, United States of America, State of Nevada, State of New Mexico, State of Utah, interveners] : |