The Glenwood post., 1912-03-30
DIVISION ENGINEER
SUSTAINS MURTLE
Says His ACCuSers Have Not
Made Case Against the
Water Commissioner
The PETITION DENIED

ago before Division Engineer Rosen,
berg by number of ranchmen inter
estod in irrigation from Rifle creek
against W. j, NIurtle, water commits.
sioner OF District No. 80 the division
engineer tais week handed down his
decision.
The allegations against A[urtle, as
stated in the Post at the time of the
hearing, were very severe and such as,
if proven, should call for drastic treat
ment for if water commits .oners could
with impmlty ignore the law as Mr..
Murtle was said by the petition to
have done, the prioritics Of appropria-
ton all over the land might be endan-
gcred and ranchmen divested of val
uable rights through the malice or
caprice ol some water commissioner.
Mr. Rosenberg has gone into detail
and has covered every point brought
out in lbe petition against Murtir
After finding for the water commls.
sioner On each allegation of the petit
tion the division engineer says, among
other things
"It has developed during the hear
ing thai some unavoidable and con
siderable part Of ayo dablc waste, was
indulged u during 1911. 1t has been
shown that a decided aversion existed
on the part Of some consumers to have
this avoida5Ie waste controlled by the
commissioner; that stated amoun5,
for som weeks, about four cubic see
ond fe of water was wasted; also
that selte consumers, rafed tAeir heaas
gatts u ss isr4nr-ft u. ct q
the water commissioner had not ony
set these headgates, but after he had
warned these parties that their action
was unlawful; and that he refrainei
from further steps only after these
parties had promised to leave their
hcadgates as he set them; that the
means to ascertain the various quau-
titles of water in the several bitches,
namely approved measuring devices,
like weirs or rating fumes, were lack
ing in numerous instances.
''It has been shown that such de
vices for measuring water which were
uncertain in their results, out of re-
pair and unfit for adjustment, could
not but act detrimentally to the equit-
! nj la ,g & a ls.t
in other cases the bitches themselves
were in a poor state of maintenance
and that in other cases consumers
helped themselves to water in such
quantities as-in their, perhaps good
faith-they thought they were entitled
to, without regard to actual need or
to the requirements of their fellow-ir-
rig4tors"
After referring at some length
to the plan adopted during the past
year of the exchange of supply by
pumping from the Grand river a quan-
tity of water into the creek for the
Pioneer ditch and the use of the creek
water which formerly supplied the Pho
neer ditch, to other bitches farther up
the creek. and among them the Davi'
ditch, and showing that this action
was taken only upon the advice and
by the direction of the state engineer,
issued through the division engineer $
office, Mr.. Rosenberg says:
cit is the division engineers opin-
ion, that under these difficulties, the
water commissioner has acted as best
he could; and has officiated in general
under the orders from this office, which
in turn were likewise and in the ma
ture of things, guided by the local
circumstances, and the special require
ments and conditions of the case, ami
were transmitted to the commissioner
under the instructions from the Hon.
Charles w. Comstock, state engineer,
''In view of all the foregoing the
decision of the division engineer is.
That the applicants in this case
have not been able to substantiare
their several charges; that the sew
eral allegations as set out in their pc
tition were not proven by the evidence
and testimony Offered during this hear
| ing; that the said water commissioner
is not guilty of the charges preferred
against him in said petition; that the
said petition is denied; and that the