Arizona republican., 1905-03-28

tract between the department and the association was deemed essential be- fore entering further upon the con struction of the project. It was the view of this office and the department that it would be unwisc to begin any construction until there was an as surance that the rights would be so adjudicated as to determine definitely what amount of water could be re- garded as available for storage by the United States without coming into conflict with any prior rights
 If the department had decided to postpone work until this adjudication had been made. several years would have been lost; but on account of the exigency of the case as presented by you and Judge Kibbey. the department was willing to proceed if this adjudi- tract.
 If the dam should be constructed 1t is probable that there will be no need, at least for many years. of distinguish ing asftO the prior rights of the mem bers of the association among them selves, because the water supply from the reservoir will doubtless be ample for all their needs. If, however. by reason of a period of drought con- tinuing through a number of years, or for any other cause. there should be temporary shortage of water. it would become essential at once under the terms of the articles of association to distribute the water available accord ing to the rights of each individual shareholder under prior appropriation. This need doubtless will not arise for many years and if the adjudication IoFf a s@4s-.. -r@.- would arise; first, the witnesses now living and evidence now existing for the proper determination of these rights would probably be utterly lost, and it might, therefore, be impossible to determine with justice the rights of individuals to the water supply of the Salt river as they existed before the completion of this project; second, such adjudication would require con siderable time. so that the distribution during two or more seasons would be carried on without a knowledge of the rights of the individual water users.- a condition which would produce ex- tremely strenuous situations.
 If the present status of claims to the use of the water of the Salt river should continue to exist until the dam is completed, there is grave doubt whether any storage would be possible by the reclamation service for the benefit of the members of the associa- tion. It appears to me fair to assume that some of the present claims can not be established and that many of them are exaggerated, so that if they were recognized as claimed there would not remain sufficient water for storage to be of advantage to lands of the water users
 The Water Users association itself would be utterly unable to act as harmonious body until the relative rights of the individual shareholders to the normal water supply shall be determined and render possible the 1i- vision of this supply into the portion to be stored, in the reservoir, and the portion to be delivered to the distrib- uting system.
 The interests involved in this de- termination would be, first, the rec Hamilton service, second, the water users association, and third. the indi- vidual water users. So long as the interests of the individual water users and the association are separate, the secretary of the interior would be ut terly at a loss in providing for the di- vision of the waters of the river. It was to prevent any such diversity of interest that the water users association was formed.
 The existence of a water users as. sociation is not contemplated by the reclamation act at the present staga of the work. Section of the racla- nation act provides for a water users association when the payments have
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