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Show 97 Sources of Change in Water Policy Changes in motivations have come from the uses to which water resources were put. Community cooperation gave way to individualism, which in turn gave way to public ownership and state supervision. Community, home building, and settlement/ colonization motivations gave way to profit oriented motivation. Private motivations in turn partly gave way to reclamation ( providing new homes and farms) efforts that were augmented by the process of managed growth and planning throughout the economy. Reclamation motivations were replaced to some degree by the multiple use criteria, which has more recently been employed by the Bureau of Reclamation. The State's Policies The efforts directed towards water development have been channeled through many agencies and institutions. During the first decades of these efforts, the state lost substantial amounts of money from the land grant reservoir funds; since then, state officials have usually acted to maximize the activity directed towards water development, while at the same time minimizing the risk that state budgets bore directly. Money and resources derived from the federal government, groups of waters users, private profit oriented companies, cities' taxing abilities, and any other source which could be tapped have been mobilized to promote the cause of water development in Utah. Underlining all of this activity has been a belief or philosophy that all of the state's water resources must be utilized if the Utah is to prosper. Conclusions The influence of the pioneering mode of water development firmly cemented into the Utah mentality the idea that community rights and concerns were of importance in the water development framework. This concern eventually has evolved into a condition where the absolutism of the prior appropriation system is tempered by the concepts of beneficial use and shared risk. In times of shortages, beneficial use has priority of use for all other purposes, and agricultural use has priority over all other uses, except domestic. Because most agriculture water rights are held by mutual irrigation companies or conservancy districts, shortages in times of drought are shared equitably by the stockholders. The practice of tempering the effects of the prior appropriation system is not unique to Utah. But with respect to the particulars of the process used to do it, Utah's institutional practices are unique. These attributes come from early experiences under both the pioneer/ church method and the ( 1852) county court system. At that time ( as today), water resources were considered public resources; also, community rights were recognized. The state's agencies have continued to work towards the full utilization of water resources by serving as an organizer of the diverse groups associated with water development and by acting as a source of funds for privately or locally designed water projects, using the revolving fund first established in 1947. The current Department of Natural Resources, the Division of Water Rights headed by the State Engineer, and the Division of Water Resources are products of earlier state |
