Imperial Valley press., 1908-05-09

IIe tktH LOllo lO BC uGltt tiliitCu Oil this hearing are whether or not said diversions of water are forbidden by the decree, and in order Co properly con- stue it, all the conditions and circum- stances existing at the time of it's entry must be considered.
 Injury Already Remedied.
 Prominent among these is the fact, thatt the court awarded complainant full Compensation for the destruction of it's salt beds and works houses and all other Improvements which had been upon it's land and of which sufficient proof was adduced, the various items aggregating $456, 74G.23. The only in- jury not remedied by said award was that to the freehold, or the tenure by which the land is held. With the salt beds and works destroyed and the land itself submerged to depth of 75 or so feet and no probability of a subsistence of the lake under fifteen years, it is evident, that the title to or ownership of the land could not have been worth very much. This title or ownership, however, as I have already said, was complanants property and entitled to protection, by injunctive relief, so far as the same could be gwen without pre- judice to the settlers in Imperial Valley, who are not parties to the suit, and whose holdings were acquired before the break occurred in defendants canal which resulted in the flooding and de- struction of the salt works. These set tiers, at least some of them, suffered damages of the same kind, only in less
 
 wise menaced by the danger which de- fendant finally averted, the perpetual flow of the Colorado River into Salton sink. Unless they are saved from its operation, it is difficult to see how the injunction can be maintained at all, since otherwise it would deprive them, although not parties to the suit, of prop erty interests they then held and enjoy ed.
 Furthermore, as now remember, never in the history of this litigation, until the pending contempt proceedings, has it been contended or suggested, that the court would or ought to restrain the diversion of water from the Colorado River for the purpose of supplying I'm perial Valley with water for the uses for which it was designed and to which it would be applied.
 Threatened Ruin.
 Another circumstance to be consider ed in construing the decree is that the irrigation system in controversy is now and was, when the decree was entered a very large one, irrigating then two hundred thousand acres of land with not less than half a million more to be similarly provided for in the near fu- ture, and supplying the settlers of Inn perial Valley with water for electric plants, ice manufactures and other uses, and having in addition to many aterals, a main canal sixty-one miles in length, which, from various physical conditions and causes, was more sus- ceptible to sitting than the correspond ing conduits of other systems and re- quiring thirty or forty hours for the water to run through the main canal from point, of diversion to Sharp's head ing, and eight to nineteen more to reach the places, where used. From these conditions, it was obvious to the Court, that instantaneous and complete control of the water was impossible and, that the irrigation of said lands could not be accomplished without some water being diverted in excess of ac- tual consumption. To enjoin such eX- cess would have to put an end to the operations of defendants canal system and Imperial Valley thus deprived of water would at once have become a barren desert, its fifteen thousand or more residents forced to abandon ruin ed homes. with losses aggregating many millions of dollars; and thus the court was confronted with the question wheth- CT or not such widespread and dis- astrous consequences ought to be en- tailed upon persons, who were not be- fore the court in any capacity entit- ling them to be heard, merely to pro tect complainant's freehold.
 What the Decree Said.
 Le us now in the light Of the fore going conditions and circums tances, ex- anime the phraseology of the injunct- ion, which is as follows
 Second: That defendant be perpet- ually enjoined and restrained from di- verting from the Colorado River any of the waters thereof in excess of tho sub stantal needs of the peopla deperLapt upon the canal described 'a complain ants bill of complaint for water supply for domestic and irrigation uses and purposes and such other lawful par poses as the same may ne applied to; and that the said water go diverted, whatever may be the amount, shall he AI,ok