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Show 76 development, planning, and promotion. World War I diverted attention until 1919, but also created a time of abnormal prosperity and optimism in Utah agriculture and industry. After the war ended, but before this buoyant mood had deteriorated in the face of hard- times and drought, people began to think about the waters of the Colorado River. California and other lower basin states, which were claiming prior rights to the river's water, were recognized as threats to any rights Utah might have to the Colorado River's water. These waters were in the main unused and unfiled and unplanned for. Utah's position was precarious. Although the Strawberry Project and numerous lesser diversions had transferred a limited amount of Colorado Basin water into the Great Basin, little had been done in the way of overall planning or development to take advantage of Utah's full share of the Colorado River. As the movement that led to the Colorado River Compact took form, Utahns were once again prompted to think about questions of basin- wide and even statewide water planning. 12 The Utah Water Storage Commission A number of factors were involved in the establishment of the Utah Water Storage Commission in 1921.13 On the one hand, the Utah Water Storage Commission was a response to an outside challenge to water resources within the state's boundaries. Without extensive developments on the Colorado Plateau, Utah could claim water from the Colorado River only by the fact that it fell in the state and ran through it On the other hand, earlier failures made it clear that participation in the actual projects of water development was costly and often of limited utility. With respect to organizing water development activity, the Utah Water Storage Commission was the successor to the Utah State Conservation Commission of 1909. Like the earlier institution, its role was to work with private and federal interests to prioritize potential projects and get them underway. It consisted of the State Engineer and six citizens appointed by the governor. It was empowered to investigate the " full and proper development and utilization" of the state's water and to conduct surveys, render plans, and make estimates of costs. Legislative flat also directed it to " co- operate in all water development" with " any county or counties, city, state, federal, or other agency" interested in water development Finally, in a clause that reveals the legislature's concern for outside challenges to its water, the commission was directed to create within a year a master plan for water development and propose a " definite program" to put it into effect. 14 Among other things, the Utah Water Storage Commission identified water users with the potential to pay back the costs, and served as a negotiator between them and the Bureau of Reclamation. Between 1921 and 1941, it approved and coordinated all Utah projects undertaken Since the Colorado River flowed through many states and two countries, cooperation on any type of a water project involving the river was essential. 13On Utah Water Storage Commission see State of Utah, Laws of the State of Utah Passed at the Fourteenth Regular Session of the Legislature of the State of Utah which Convened at the Capital in the City of Salt Lake, January 10th 1921 and adjourned Sine Die on the 10th Day of the March, 1921 ( Salt Lake City: Arrow Press, 1921), Chapter 71, pp 187- 188. 14Ibid. |
