OCR Text |
Show 727 but the adjudication proceedings from start to finish are judicial. However, a large, active organization headed by the State Engineer administers the decrees of adjudication of water rights and distributes the water according to them.83 The State is divided by statute into irrigation divisions comprising principal drainage areas, administered by irrigation division engineers who are under the general supervision of the State Engineer.84 Each division in turn comprises a number of water districts, likewise created by statute, which are administered by water commissioners under the supervision of the irrigation division engineer.85 Idaho The constitution of Idaho declares that the right to divert and appro- priate the unappropriated waters of any natural stream to beneficial uses shall never be denied, except that the State may regulate and limit the use thereof for power purposes.86 Other provisions of the same section of the constitution are: Priority of appropriation gives the better right; but when the waters of a stream are not sufficient for all who desire to use them, domestic purposes (subject to such limitations as may be prescribed by law) have the first preference, and agricultural pur- poses have preference over manufacturing. In any organized mining district, mining purposes or milling purposes connected with mining have preference over manufacturing or agricultural purposes. The usage by such subsequent appropriators, however, is subject to the laws regulating the taking of private property by condemnation for public and private use. The Idaho Supreme Court has recognized the prefer- ence thus accorded users of water for domestic purposes, expressly sub- ject, however, to the payment of compensation by those taking for superior purposes water already appropriated by others.87 The court has also held that the constitutional preference accorded to mining and milling purposes in an organized mining district does not authorize parties engaged in mining or any other occupation to fill up the natural channel of a public stream to the injury of any other user of the water of such stream.88 The statute relating to the appropriation of water declares that all waters when flowing in their natural channels, including the waters 83 Colo. Stats. Ann. 1935, and 1947 Cum. Supp., ch. 90, §§ 201 to 345; Laws 1943, ch. 190, § 15, codified 1947 Cum. Supp., ch. 90, § 189 (15). 84 Colo. Stats. Ann. 1935, and 1947 Cum. Supp., §§ 224 to 248. 86 Colo. Stats. Ann. 1935, and 1947 Cum. Supp., §§ 249 to 345. 84 Idaho Const, art XV, § 3. 87 Montpelier Mill. Co. v. Montpelier, 19 Idaho 212, 219, 220, 113 Pac. 741 (1911); Basinger v. Taylor, 30 Idaho 289, 294, 295, 164 Pac. 522 (1917). 88 Hill v. Standard Min. Co., 12 Idaho 223, 233, 85 Pac. 907 (1906); Ravndal v. North Fork Placers, 60 Idaho 305, 311, 91 Pac. (2d) 368 (1939). |