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Show SPECIAL STATUTORY ADJUDICATION PROCEDURES 459 to the State statutory [administration of water rights. The portions of the Bien Code relating to adjudication of water rights provided: (1) that the State administrative agency make hydrographic surveys of each stream system and source of water supply in the State, including available data for the determination, development and adjudication of the water supply; (2) that on completion of any such survey, the administrative agency deliver a copy to the Attorney General; (3) that the Attorney General, shall enter suit on behalf of the State within 60 days for an adjudication of such rights, and prosecute the same diligently to final adjudication by the court; (4) but that if suit for adjudication of such rights has been begun by private parties, the Attorney General is not required to bring suit, although he is required to intervene in such suit on behalf of the State if notified by the administrative agency that in its opinion the public interest requires such action. In any suit for the determination of a right to use the waters of any stream system, all parties claiming the right to use such waters shall be made parties. The court shall call upon the administrative agency to make or furnish a hydrographic survey. The costs of such suit and of such surveys shall be charged against each of the private parties in proportion to the amount of the water right allotted.97 One writer has said that "although Mr. Bien aimed to take what he considered best from all the existing codes, [the Bien Code] most closely follows the 1903 Utah statute."98 However, among other differences, the 1903 Utah legislation did not provide that the action would be brought by the Attorney General. It instead provided that when a statement of a completed hydrographic survey and related data had been filed with the district court, the court itself would initiate and conduct the action.99 The Bien Code provisions described above have been closely followed in North Dakota legislation. They have been largely followed in New Mexico and more or less similar legislation has been enacted in South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Montana.100 Some Other Statutory Provisions Kansas The Chief Engineer of the Division of Water Resources, State Board of Agriculture, is directed by statute to gather data and other information 97 A somewhat more detailed description of such provisions, as adopted in North Dakota, is included at notes 320-325 infra. "Chandler, A. E., "Elements of Western Water Law" 67-68 (Rev. ed. 1918). For a discussion of the draft code by Bien himself, see Bien, Morris, "Proposed State Code of Water Laws," in U.S. Geol. Survey, Water Supply and Irrigation Papers, No. 146, pp. 29-34 (1905). See also his letter to Samuel C. Wiel reproduced in Wiel, supra note 96, at 1329-1332. "See Utah Laws 1903, ch. 100, § § 11,12. The current Utah legislation, with some exceptions, resembles the Oregon system, as discussed at note 92 supra. 100 See the State summaries in the appendix. |
