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Show ALASKA 97 When the application is approved, the commissioner fixes a time for beginning construction and perfecting the appropriation. Ex- tensions of time may be granted for good cause shown.78 Once the project works are completed and the water is placed to beneficial use, the permit holder notifies the commissioner and the commissioner issues him a certificate of appropriation, evidencing the perfected right.79 The priority of the appropriation dates from the date the application is filed with the commissioner.80 Any deci- sion of the commissioner with respect to an application is subject to appeal to the superior court.81 32. Nature and Limit of Rights Under the appropriation system, the water user gains a right to divert and use water rather than title to the corpus of the stream it- self, and beneficial use of the water is the measure of the right acquired. The Alaska court early recognized that beneficial use is the measure and limit of the right of an appropriator and that the appropriation only extends to water actually beneficially used re- gardless of the quantity claimed.82 The beneficial use concept was carried forward in the 1966 water use act which provides the waters of the State are, "subject to appropriation and beneficial use."83 The act defines beneficial use to mean: a use of water for the benefit of the appropriator, other persons or the public, that is reasonable and consistent with the public interest, including, but not limited to, domestic, agricultural, irrigation, industrial, manufacturing, mining, power, public, sanitary, fish and wildlife, and recreational uses; "* Historically in the West, beneficial use was defined primarily in economic terms with rights being recognized for such traditional uses as irrigation, domestic, and industrial purposes. Many States have been slow to give recognition to the uses of water for such pur- poses as fish and wildlife and recreation uses. Thus, the statutory definition of beneficial use in Alaska properly assures a wide range of uses in the public interest. While the Alaska water use act recognizes and preserves prior rights, it only purports to recognize those where the water was placed to beneficial use, or were about to be placed to use at the time the act was passed: A water right acquired by law before July 1, 1966 or a beneficial use of water on July 1, 1966, or made within five years before July 1, 1966, or made in con- junction with works under construction on July 1, 1966, under a lawful com- mon law or customary appropriation or use, is a lawful appropriation under this chapter. The appropriation is subject to applicable provisions of this chapter and rules and regulations adopted under this chapter.85 As between appropriators, priority of appropriation gives the better right and the first appropriator is entitled to have his right *» Sec. 46.15.110. to Sec. 46.15.120. 80 Sec. 46.15.130. » Sec. 46.15.185. wNoland v. Coon, 1 Alaska 36 (1890) ; Ketchikan Co. v. Citizens' Co., 2 Alaska 120 (1903) ; Hoogendorn v. Nelson Gulch Mining Co., 4 Alaska 216 (1910). w Sec. 46.15.030. «Sec. 46.15.260(3). «5 Sec. 46.15.060. |