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Show 19 clarified the water rights of individuals, the earlier individual grants lost much of their special significance. Beyond the legislature's role in drafting water law and issuing a relatively small number of grants to cities and individuals, the territorial government was not active in water development projects. Both development and administration were left to the county courts and to municipal and private grantees. The most important influence of the territorial government, thus, was in allowing the systems it established to function. The grants of control to specific cities of the water resources within their boundaries or the resources in the surrounding region which supplied the city with water allowed cities to take an active role in ensuring that their citizens and the surrounding settlers would have an adequate water source. Changes in Water Utilization and Institutions, Extensive to Intensive As the territory's population grew in the years after 1852, unclaimed and easily available water resources became increasingly scarce. Although settlement was extended by the church's colonization programs, population growth in the Wasatch Front counties focused the mounting demand in developed areas. Together with contiguous areas in Box Elder, Cache, and Sanpete counties, the Wasatch Front counties were also the area of the most intensive agricultural use. 13 As a result, water use became more exhaustive. Although irrigation was the object of greatest use ( and continues to be), municipal and industrial uses also had to be provided for. Institutions ( such as the county courts, water masters, and local usage laws) developed which attempted to make the use of water for irrigation and other purposes more efficient. Salt Lake City investigated different methods for ensuring delivery of good water for culinary and garden use. Reservoirs were constructed and wooden pipes installed to the city's central area. Other improvements included the redesign of distribution systems. The object was to cover a larger amount of land. 14 Social institutions also evolved. The office of water master was established as a public position in 1852. The law which gave control of water resources to the county courts also directed that water masters be appointed to supervise delivery systems. Under the authority of the county courts, all water systems appointed water masters. These people were paid from tax revenues, water assessments, or directly by the water users. The master's responsibility was to regulate the flow of water in the canals, keep the ditches in good repair, supervise water turns, report to the county court, and, in cooperation with local mumcipal and church leaders, coordinate assessment work. A related practice that had developed prior to 1852, but which was legally incorporated into the water master institution, was that of the water turn. Rather then allow users to utilize a given amount of water on a steady basis, users were given a right to a portion of a stream ( usually wayne L. Wahlquist, " Settlement Process in the Mormon Core Area, 1847- 1890," ( Thesis, University of Nebraska, Department of Geography, Lincoln, Nebraska 1974), pp 101- 133 and 290- 303. Also Wayne L. Wahlquist, Population Growth in the Mormon Core Area: 1847- 1890 in R. H. Johnson, ed., ( Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1978), pp 107- 133. 14 On Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County irrigation development see Charles S. Peterson, with John Lambom " Agriculture in Salt Lake County 1890- 1915," ( Prepared under contract with the Henry Wheeler Living Historical Farm, 1980) Chapter 2, especially pp 53- 58. |