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Show METHODS OF APPROPRIATING WATER OF WATERCOURSES 435 to the attention of the Federal court at El Paso. This court, in answer to a contention that article 7472a is unconstitutional in making the legislation inapplicable to any stream constituting the international boundary between the United States and Mexico, sustained the validity of the section. This elimination of the Rio Grande, the court considered, did not reflect any arbitrary discrimination or repugnant classification, and was not irrational.1012 (3) Procedures for condemning prior low preference water rights. (a) Washington. The State constitution provides that the use of water for irrigation, mining, and manufacturing purposes shall be deemed a public use.1013 The water rights statute of Washington declares the beneficial use of water to be a public use. It extends to any person (meaning individuals, associations, corporations, districts, and municipalities) the right to exercise the power of eminent domain for acquiring property and rights needed for water control and use, including the right to condemn an inferior use of water for a superior use. The court is vested with the function of determining what use will be for the greatest public benefit and therefore to be deemed a superior use. A limitation is That no property right in water or the use of water shall be acquired hereunder by condemnation for irrigation purposes, which shall deprive any person of such quantity of water as may be reasonably necessary for the irrigation of his land then under irrigation to the full extent of the soil, by the most economical method of artificial irrigation applicable to such land according to the usual methods of artificial irrigation employed in the vicinity where such land is situated. In any case, the court shall determine what is the most economical method ,1014 In construing the statute, the Washington Supreme Court held that although incidental benefits to be derived by the public from the establishment of a private enterprise could not be considered sufficient to make the intended use a public one, this nevertheless does not apply to the portions of the State in which water supplies are limited and generally cannot be duplicated-where water is life itself. Hence under such circumstances the use of water for irrigation, or for domestic purposes when the desired domestic purpose is the foundation of an agricultural enterprise, becomes a public use.1015 (b) Wyoming. Preferred uses include rights for domestic and transportation purposes, steam powerplants, and industrial purposes. Existing rights not 012El Paso County W. I. Dist. No. 1 v. El Paso, 133 Fed. Supp. 894, 906-907 (W. D. Tex. 1955), affirmed in part, reversed in part but not on the matter considered here, 243 Fed. (2d) 927 (5th Cir. 1957), certiorari denied, 355 U. S. 820 (1957). 1013 Wash. Const., art. XXI, § 1. 1014 Wash. Rev. Code § § 90.03.040 and 90.03.480 (Supp. 1961). l0t5State ex rel. Andersen v. Superior Court, 119 Wash. 406, 410-411, 205 Pac. 1051 (1922). |