The Ordway new era., 1905-11-24
Platte River Water Riahts.

The United States department OF
Agriculture has issued. as Bulletin 15i
OF the Office of experimental stations.
report giving the results of an in
yestigation of Interstate water rights
on the Platte river and Its tributaries.
and dealing with the water right prob
lens on this stream in Colorado, Ne
braska and Wyoming.
Statistics were gathered as TO the
value of water. both as determined by
the rentals paid for its use and by the
value OF the crops grown on irrigated
lands. The duty of the water was also
studied on a number of typical streams
in each of the three states. Supple
menting the statistics regarding the
number of water rights and the vol
ume of water appropriated are alb
stracts from the court decision defin-
ing the nature of these rights. The
influence OF water rights on develop.
ment within states is discussed by
Mr.. Mead and the interstate water
problems by Mr.. Teele.
The issues dealt with in this bull
letin are similar to those now being
li.igated in the United States Supreme
Court with respect to the water of the
Arkansas river. They comprise: %
The relation between riparian rights
and those acquired by appropriation
in the same state: and (2) the rela-
tion between appropriations rights in
the different states.
The first ditch diverting the water
OF this stream for irrigation was built
in 1853. This report summarizes the
results of the development since
that time and shows how i'm
portant are the interests depend
ing on the stability of water titles.
The Platte river and its tributaries ir-
| rigate 1,92i,463 acres of land. Some
of the best farming land sells for $500
and none that is irrigated sells for
less than $40 an acre. Fifty years ago
this land was regarded as a desert
and was practically worthless If the
right to use the water in irrigation
were taken away from it 1t would be
/ practically valueless today
More than 100000 people live in the
irrigated territory on this stream. Not
all OF them depend upon agriculture
The city of Denver with 100000 peo.
pie, Cheyenne with $1,000 people, Lar.
annie with 1000 people, North Platte
with 10000 people, and score oI
towns having from 1000 to 10000 in
habitants, with their machine shops
flour mills. paper mills, beet sugar fac
tories and transportation interests, ali
tend to augment the importance ol
water, because not city or town. q
factory or railway can be assured oI
the privilege of using the water of this
stream without securing righ
thereto through definite legal pro
cedure.
The value of water rights for irriga
tion has risen from 81 an acre to SO:
an acre, and stored water sells 10
even higher prices. Water to irrigat,
an acre of land has been sold for 81,
a year.
The average flow of water In th,
South Platte and It's tributaries Il
2,765 cubic feet per second. Agains
this supply rights to 30,597 cubic fee
per second have been established Ii
Colorado and Nebraska. The area 1,
rigated from the North Platte and Il
tributaries is about 100000 acres. 1,
Nebraska riparian rights are recor
nized, as well as rights of appropr
alton. Being inherent in the land, tn
frst-named do not require any iegs
procedure for their establishment.
The measurements of water use
and the water returned to this strear
bring out the fact that a large ne,
centage OF the water diverted by a ma,
ticular canal Is not wholly lost, but r,
turns to the stream and Is used owe
and over again. Some Of the measur,
ments showed that in low water ID
return seepage tends to increase Il,
now Of streams rather than diminis
It.. q n
Applications for this report shoul
be nnadc to the director of the o1lS
g experiment staticns. United Gtatl