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Show IDAHO 261 proposed finding of water rights, which is submitted to the court and the water users.12 Other duties of the director include the general authority to make investigations of the water resources of the State,13 and to license well drillers and adopt standards for well construction.14 Also, the Department of Water Administration which is headed by the direc- tor must approve plans and specifications for the construction, en- largement, or alteration of dams in excess of 20 feet in height or having a capacity in excess of 100 acre-feet, and undertake an in- spection during construction.15 The director is to represent the State in all matters pertaining to interstate and international water rights affecting Idaho water resources.16 However, the director is an administrative officer and is not vested with judicial powers. In granting an application to appropriate water, the director is performing purely an administrative act, and if he deprives a prior appropriator of water by granting a new permit from the same source of supply, the court will afford the aggrieved party a remedy.17 2.2 Resolution of Water Use Conflicts Since many water rights disputes result from a lack of definition and integration of the various rights, the statutory adjudication pro- cedure is designed to aid in the solution of these problems. Whenever a suit is filed in the district court by parties to adjudicate their re- spective rights from a water source, the district court may request the department to make an examination of the water system and to make a report to the court. Also, the director, upon his own initiative or upon a petition signed by five or more (or a majority) users of water from any water system, may commence an adjudication action in the district court. Notice of filing of such an action is given by publication, and protests against the commencement of the adjudi- cation may be filed. If it is determined that such an action should proceed, the director then proceeds to map the water system and all water uses therefrom. Upon completion of the examination, the di- rector is authorized to request the district judge to join all claimants from the source being adjudicated, to require that they be served with summons, and to require that they file claims for their water uses. The director, after examination of the claims, prepares and files a report in the nature of a proposed finding of water rights, which the statute makes prima facia evidence of the water rights from the system. Objections may be filed against the director's report within 60 days and the matter is then heard by the court. Water used for irrigation shall be decreed as appurtenant to the land upon which it is used. It is further provided that any user, joined in the action, who fails to assert his right, forfeits the right upon entry of the "Idaho code, sees. 42-1401 to 42-1413. »Idaho code, sec. 42-1701. "Idaho code, sec. 42-238. «Idaho code, sec. 42-1710 to 42-1720. "Idaho code, sec. 42-1805. *> Big Wood Canal Co. V. Chapman, 45 Idaho 380, 263 Pac. 45 (1927). |
