| OCR Text |
54 Conclusion It is clear the legal status of water rights and water institutions were dealt with and refined many times by the Utah legislature during the ten years following statehood. The result was a system which allowed for water rights to be identified and protected. The legal authority to determine water rights resided in the courts. The responsibility to measure and record those rights resided in the Office of the State Engineer. The state also assumed an increasing role in the promotion and construction of irrigation structures. This was accomplished by taking advantage of federal programs, and by utilizing the Land Grant Reservoir Fund. The decade saw growth in all types of water uses. These increased levels of use were partly responsible for the increased conflict between water users occurring at the time of and following statehood. Partly as a response to these conflicts and to other pressures from within and without the state, Utah water policy and administrative structure was changed to allow for more public control and management of water resources. The establishment of the Office of the State Engineer and its activities reflected a developing awareness of the necessity of scientific water management on the part of Utah's law makers and to a lesser degree her citizens. It was also a manifestation of the increased ability of people to control the environment in which they lived through the application of technology. The Office of the State Engineer was utilized to ensure that water resources were used in a safe manner. The provision in the 1897 law that all dams over ten feet in height ( changed in 1903 to five feet in height, or dams storing water to a depth greater than ten feet) had to be approved by the State Engineer illustrates that development was becoming more technically difficult. It was also a recognition of the potential for problems. As a result, the safeguards became more stringent. Water use became more intensive ( exhaustive) in nature. Those water resources that could initially be easily controlled and used had long since been appropriated. After statehood, water development projects were generally more technically difficult and therefore usually more expensive. The creation of the Board of Land Commissioners was a recognition that greater state involvement would be necessary if the continued reclamation of arid lands was desired. The actions of the state in 1903 that created the Arid Land Reclamation Fund Commission extended this recognition of the need for involvement to the federal level. Although the Board of Land Commissioners did not design or build any projects in the 1896- 1906 decade, they did work with the state engineer and the Arid Land Reclamation Fund Commission in designing the Utah Lake Pumping Project, the Strawberry Project, the Bear Lake Project, and the Grand River Project. Much of the state's role in these projects was the identification of water development possibilities, arranging work relationships, and planning for a cohesive pattern of water development that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent any such municipal corporation from exchanging water rights or sources of supply of equal value, and to be devoted in like manner to the public supply of its inhabitants. |
