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Show 58 Drainage Districts The legislature also established the legal framework under which water users could group together to solve common problems. An attempt had been made as early as 1896 to provide drainage districts. Because of various flaws in the legislation, and perhaps because irrigable land was still abundant at relatively low prices, landowners during the early period of statehood showed little interest in organizing drainage districts. This early law authorized county commissioners to begin the process of establishing a district when fifty or more landowners petitioned for one. After a public hearing, an election could be held. If at least two- thirds of the landowners voted in the affirmative, the district was organized. In 1905 and 1907, the 1896 drainage law was revised to make bonding specifically possible and to restrict the value of bonds that could be issued to four percent of the value of the land within a drainage district. 5 However, in 1911 in the case of Argyle v Johnson, Utah's supreme court declared the law unconstitutional because one of its provisions deprived absentee landowners, who happened to have property in the district, of the right to vote on district business. 6 In response to the court's ruling, the state's legislators again dealt with the drainage problem in 1913 and 1915, establishing a constitutionally acceptable method by which drainage districts could be formed. 7 This revision specified that, in addition to the right to bond to finance needed facilities, districts now had the right to levy assessments against property within the district, forming a lien against the property if unpaid. The law also allowed drainage districts to enter into contracts with the federal government. State Engineer Lloyd Garrison, in the " Fourteenth Biennial Report," stressed the necessity of the drainage legislation and pointed out its benefits: 8 It has been demonstrated in many portions of the state that the installation of a proper drainage system will remove the excess water producing waterlogging, and also make it possible to leach out accumulations of harmful salts with copious applications of irrigation water. Lands so treated have been restored, in many instances, to a condition under which maximum production again was realized. In the same report, he stressed that many of Utah's landowners could benefit from the organization of drainage districts. 9 Not less than one- fourth of the area of land brought under irrigation in Utah has been rendered more or less unproductive, due to waterlogging, or accumulation of salts, or both. 5State of Utah, Laws of Utah Passed at the Sixth Regular Session of the Legislature of the State of Utah Held at Salt Lake City, the State Capital, in January, February, and March, 1905 ( Provo, Utah: The Skelton Publishing Company, 1905), Chapter 124, pp 233- 238. 6Argyle v Johnson 1911, 1180 Pac. 487. 7State of Utah, Laws of the State of Utah Passed at the Tenth Regular Session of the Legislature of the State of Utah which Convened at the State Capital, Salt Lake City, January 13th, 1913 and Adjourned March 13th, 1913 ( Salt Lake City, Utah: Century Publishing Company, 1913), Chapter 95, pp 167- 183; and State of Utah, Laws of the State of Utah Passed at the Eleventh Regular Session of the Legislature of the State of Utah which Convened at the State Capital, Salt Lake City, January 11th, 1915 and Adjourned March 11, 1915 ( Salt Lake City, Utah: Century Publishing Company, 1915), Chapter 114, pp 206- 209. 8State of Utah, " Fourteenth Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor of the State of Utah for the Years 1923 and 1924," Public Documents, pp 29- 30. ' Ibid. |
