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Show 81 0 Dollar amount of existing loans which were refinanced during the year. The total amount extended would include the new loans plus the refinanced ones. For 1931 total loans equaled $ 543,800 - $ 105,900 in new loans and $ 437,900 in refinanced loans. <> The recorded dollar value of the total outstanding farm loans which the state had repossessed and either leased or idled. These loans were not refinanced. The state could find no takers. The state owned the land because they could not sell it for what they had invested. By 1940 the state had repossessed a total of 912 farms located throughout the state, and had only been able to sell about half of them. The result of this action was a loss of $ 740,288 in principal from the reservoir land grant fund. + After 1941 the number and value of loans owned by the state was no longer reported separately. The Office of the State Engineer The Office of the State Engineer was a mature agency by 1921 with well- established duties. Nevertheless, there were certain changes in emphasis that related to the growing complexity of water management. Among its contributions was its emphasis on a scientific or technological approach to water utilization that set the stage for intelligent water use in the state. The office continued to collect data, to serve as the agency of record for water applications and rights, and to regulate private use of water. Yet its duties remained basically unchanged, expanding in scope rather than function after 1921. The administrative and regulatory duties performed by the Office of the State Engineer increased as the water resources in the state became more fully appropriated. The administration and proper regulation of the resource became more difficult The decrease in readily available unappropriated water resources prompted State Engineer George M. Bacon to write in the " Eighteenth Biennial Report": " It is a matter of common knowledge that practically all of the public waters of the state of Utah are appropriated." 29 After 1915 the number of water applications received by the State Engineer's Office per year steadily fell until the passage in 1935 of legislation requiring groundwater users to file water applications. 30 The decreasing number of water right applications was a reflection of the fact that there was less unappropriated surface water available for new water users, and that feasible water projects were becoming more complex and expensive. ' State of Utah, " Eighteenth Biennial Report of the State Engineer to the Governor of the State of Utah for the Years 1931 and 1932," Public Documents, p 10. ^ State of Utah, Laws of the State of Utah ( 1935), Chapter 105, Section 1, 100- 1- 1, 100- 3- 1, 100- 5- 12, pp 104- 105, 200. |
