| OCR Text |
Show 10 OVERVIEW If accurate records are established and maintained, the States can then move toward the improvement of the procedures for trans- ferring water rights. One means of making better use of existing water supplies is to allow water rights to be transferred to more productive uses through voluntary bargaining. Laws, institutions, and procedures tend to hamper this process in many States, but improvement can be expected as scarcity grows and sources of new supply become more expensive. Another problem which the States will address will be that of devising and improving institutional mechanisms to protect the fishery, esthetic, scenic, and recreational values of water, and to im- prove multiple use features of water project construction so that these values are better harmonized with consumptive and economic water uses. The ultimate goal will be to devise legal and institutional ma- chinery for effective conjunctive management of ground water with surface water. The effectiveness of such management will be measured by the extent to which it recognizes and provides -for all water use values, requires efficiency and economy in use, encourages recycling and reuse, provides for sequential and multiple use, and utilizes sur- face and underground storage facilities in conjunction with each other to reduce water losses and to achieve the wisest conservation and use of the water supply. This will not come aibout automatically or easily, but will only be realized through painstaking effort. Vested water rights are property rights which are entitled to the protection of constitutional due process, and they cannot be taken, impaired, or destroyed in the name of better water management without payment of just com- pensation. Unused water rights, such as undeveloped ground water in correlative rights jurisdictions or water flowing in surface streams in riparian rights jurisdictions, are not viewed as vested property rights in all jurisdictions. In any event, presently vested water rights will in some measure restrict and complicate effective water manage- ment, but need not frustrate it. |
