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Show METHODS OF APPROPRIATING WATER OF WATERCOURSES 327 be taken upon it (see "(5) Permit: Types," below).514 Its purpose is similar to that of the Texas presentation which, however, is applied for voluntarily. (3) Application to State administrator, (a) Necessity of filing application. With a few exceptions, the western water rights laws provide that an application for permission to appropriate water must be filed-not necessarily before anything is done in anticipation of an application, inasmuch as necessary studies, surveys, and estimates may require a long period of time-but before any actual construction of storage, diversion, or distribution facilities is performed, or before water is diverted from constructed works.5is The Kansas statute is exceptional in stating specifically that the application to the Chief Engineer may be filed either before or after commencement of any work in connection with construction, enlargement, or extension of any works for the diversion, storage, or use of water.516 The Washington law does not undertake to forbid the construction of works prior to making an application to the Director. It does prohibit an intending appropriator from using or diverting the water in question until he has received a permit. And it declares that construction of any waterworks, or performance of any work in connection with construction or use of water, "shall not be an appropriation of such water nor an act for the purpose of appropriating water unless a permit," other than a temporary permit, has first been granted.517 This "spells out" the apparent intention of the legislature-expressed explicitly in another section518-that priority of an appropriative right acquired under the administrative procedure is not to be determined by the time of beginning construction of works or diverting water, or of performing any act in connection with the proposed appropriation other than filing the application.519 Most of the other western legislatures depend upon providing for relation back to the time of filing the application, and on prohibiting the beginning of an appropriation before obeying the statutory admonition. (b) Required contents of application. The water rights statutes prescribe cer- tain items which the application to the administrator must contain. They leave to the State agency's promulgated rules and regulations announcement of additional requirements that the agency may deem necessary. The purpose of the required contents, supported by maps, drawings, and documents, is to provide the admin- istrator with a proper description and limitation of the right applied for. 514 Wash. Rev. Code § 90.03.290 (Supp. 1961). 515 In some States, no permit is required for certain uses of water such as domestic use. See the discussion in chapter 8 under "Elements of the Appropriative Right-Purposes of the Use of Water." sl6Kans. Stat. Ann. § 82a-709 (1969). 517 Wash. Rev. Code § 90.03.250 (Supp. 1961). 518 "The right acquired by appropriation shall relate back to the date of filing of the original application in the office of the supervisor of water resources." Id. § 90.03.340. 519 Application of the doctrine of relation requires, of course, that all subsequent steps be properly taken and that there be no hiatus in continuity of the proceeding. |