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Show WHO MAY APPROPRIATE WATER 253 vested rights and dry draw uses"-may be withdrawn from appropriation for periods not specified in the statute pending the making of investigations by the United States.147 Nebraska specifically authorizes the United States to appropriate, develop, and store unappropriated flood or unused waters in compliance with Nebraska law in connection with any project constructed under the Reclamation Act. Detailed provisions, including conducting of Water along natural streams, are contained in the enactment.148 Under the Idaho statute, the Division of Grazing, United States Depart- ment of the Interior, may appropriate water for the purpose of water- ing livestock on the public domain, subject to certain restrictions on use of the water and duration of the appropriation so required. The statute provides that this authorization shall not be construed to prevent the Bureau of Reclamation from filing application for or completing appro- priation of water under the general water appropriation laws of the State.149 Oregon provides, among other things, that on any stream system where construction is contemplated by the United States under the Reclamation Act, the State Engineer shall make a hydrographic survey of the stream system and shall furnish to the Attorney General all data necessary for a determination of water rights. On request of the Secretary of the Interior, the State Attor- ney General and district attorneys in the areas affected are required to bring suit on behalf of the State for such determination of all water rights concerned.150 Without reliance upon any statute relating specifically to projects under the Reclamation Act, the Colorado Supreme Court held in 1967 that under the facts in that case there was no intent to take water and no physical demonstration from which such an intent could be inferred so as to constitute the initial step in an appropriation where the Bureau of Reclamation had made only a preliminary study "for information" along with several other studies throughout virtually all of the river basin without any determination as to which particular project might be undertaken.151 In another case also decided in 1967, the court noted that similar studies had been made by the Bureau of Reclamation except that, since the projects involved in the latter case had been specifically identified in Congressional legislation, they were studied in more 147S. Dak. Comp. Laws Ann. § 46-5-42 (1967). 148Nebr. Rev. Stat. § 46-273 (1968). 149 Idaho Code Ann. § § 42-501 to -505 (1948). 150Oreg. Rev. Stat. § 541.220 (Supp. 1969). Other provisions also relate to Federal reclamation. Section 537.290 exempts the United States from provisions relating to public recapture of water used for power purposes. iS1Four Counties Water Users Assn. v. Colorado River Water Conservation Dist., 161 Colo. 416, 425 Pac. (2d) 259 (1967), cert, denied, 389 U.S. 1049 (1967), reh. denied, 390 U.S. 976 (1968). |
