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Show 44 fair disposition of special grants of land, including the reservoir grant of the Enabling Act. 9 The next year, the authority of the Land Commissioners was enlarged to take advantage of the Carey Land Act terms, another program in the federal government's growing reclamation package. 10 The passage of the 1897 law creating the State Engineer's Office was another important bench mark in the process by which the growing water management role of the state emerged. 11 It was also a step toward recognizing that these same officials needed to be directly involved in determining both what the public's interest was and what the proper uses of water resources were. In addition, the 1897 legislature passed a measure which defined the procedure of obtaining water for irrigation purposes. 12 The goal of this measure was to provide for a complete recording of existing water rights and to establish a process that would also record newly acquired water rights. To achieve this, the law required the potential irrigator to post a notice at both the desired point of use and in the nearest post office. The law also required him to file a record in the county of the diversion stating the details of the project Finally, the law required the appropriator to begin work within forty days from the time of the postings and complete it within a reasonable time in order for a water right to be recognized. The 1897 measures were halting steps that failed to provide the administrative framework the state's citizens needed. The fact that the legislature extended little authority and provided meager budgets initially kept the State Engineer from carrying out several important provisions of the law. In the years that followed, the office of the State Engineer was occupied by strong individuals and its responsibilities and appropriations were increased. However, the procedure of posting notices and filing records did little to solve the problem of over appropriation, because the only means available to stop a potential irrigator on a river system continued to be through legal action. Adding to the 1897 water law framework in 1901, the legislature provided for water commissioners in specified districts to apportion the water resources of the state according to priority of appropriation and beneficial use criteria. This new law built upon the constitutional provision by recognizing primary and secondary rights and other rights in those cases where the courts had defined many classes of water rights. 13 Thus, by 1901 Utah had provided a system of water resource administration which would, in theory, both protect and administer water rights. The principal weakness of the 1901 system was that it did not provide for the automatic protection of individual water rights. When serious differences occurred, individuals either settled the matter through church or community arbitration ( non- binding) or resorted to the court system. This led to situations in which the only final legal declaration of rights came through conflict and usually large expense. If there had been some way State of Utah, Laws of the State ( 1896), for the legislation see note 2, Chapter 4, p 90; and see State of Utah, Revised Statutes of the State of Utah in force January 1,1898 ( Lincoln, Nebraska: State Journal Company, Printers, 1897), Tide 63, Chapter 8, Sections 2451- 2459, pp 551- 553. 10Almost all of the early State Board of Land Commissioners' reports contained information about proposed Carey projects. With the exception of the Delta project none of these survived the planning stage. " State of Utah, Revised Statutes of the State of Utah ( 1898), title 63, Chapter 8, Sections 2451- 2459, pp 551- 553. ^ Revised Statutes of the State of Utah in force January 1,1898, Tide 33, Sections 1261- 1288, pp 342- 347. 13State of Utah, Laws of the State of Utah Passed at the Fourth Regular Session of the Legislature of the State of Utah held at Salt Lake City, the State Capital, in January, February, and March, 1901 ( Salt Lake City: The Deseret News Press, 1901), Chapter 125, Sections 14 and 15. pp 144. |
