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Show METHODS OF APPROPRIATING WATER OF WATERCOURSES 305 officials, in distributing water pursuant to a court adjudication, are deemed to be officers of the court, under its supervision and control.429 The other 16 States have statutory administration procedures of varying character. The Colorado system unquestionably set the pattern for the numerous procedures, beginning with Wyoming, which followed. This is a purely administrative proceeding. Its original and still basic purpose is to execute and enforce the water rights decrees of the courts. After adjudicating the water rights in such an action, the courts do not again become involved unless and until called upon to settle some particular controversy connected with the administrative program. The extent of the water administrative organizations of these 16 States, the degree to which they are being utilized in the several jurisdictions, and their relative importance in the water rights control programs of these States, all vary considerably. The oldest systems of the three neighboring States of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska, have effectively operated throughout these jurisdictions. Each State is divided into many areas based on hydrological considerations-a few major divisions that take account of main drainage lines, and a considerable number of subdivisions pertaining to the lesser streams or sections of main ones. Active control emanates from the State administrative agency to the main division officials and thence to those in charge of the subdivisions.430 These State" representatives are charged with the responsibility of delivering water pursuant to the rights of each water user. They open, adjust, and close headgates in order to control outflow from the streams.431 And they frequently have power to make arrests.432 As a practical matter, the wide divergence from one State to another in the importance and utilization of this arm of the water administrative program results from the volume of demands for its functioning. In general, water distribution areas are required by the statutes to be established and put into operation as the need therefor develops. This need may vary with the rate of water development in the State, but not necessarily so. Some examples follow: California, with its vast and widespread water uses, has one of the simpler distribution plans. An outstanding use of this plan in California is on Kings River, in San Joaquin Valley, where for many decades the water rights situation has been extremely complicated.433 429 Nev. Rev. Stat. § 533.220 (Supp. 1967). 430Wyo. Const., art. VIII, § § 4 and 5; Wyo. Stat. Ann. § § 41-54 and -61 (1967); Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 148-21-8, 148-11-3, and 148-11-5 (Supp. 1969); Nebr. Rev. Stat. § § 46-215 to -217, -222, and -223 (Supp. 1968). 431Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 41-57, -58, -63 (1957), and -64 (Supp. 1969); Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 148-11-3, 148-21-17, and 148-21-34 (Supp. 1969); Nebr. Rev. Stat. §§ 46-218, -219, and -224 (Supp. 1968). 432Wyo. Rev. Stat. § 41-65 (1957). 433 For an interesting and authoritative account of that era on this important stream system, see Kaupke, Charles L., "Forty Years on Kings River, 1917-1957" (1957). 450-486 O - 72 - 22 |