The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1915-12-10
BY EARL w. BOWMAN.

ern Idaho will stop now if the prin
ciple involved in the report Of th
irrigation law revision commission
covering the Big Wood river and 9th
er projects is carried to its ultimat
conclusion.
The commission, in it's report upol
these projects, has made deplorabl
fundamental mistake. Its recon-
mendations touching these darcy ac
tracts constitute most grievous in
justice not only to the projects them
selves but to the irrigation industr.
as awhole as we'll
BY advising area reduction in thes
instances instead of duty increase o
some plan of more efficient applica
ton, the commission has advanced {
principle that conflicts with the con
stitutional provision that use, benefi
cial use, is the only right to watel
which an individual may acquire.
1t has done more than that 1t has
shown that it has failed Utterly tC
grasp the more comprehensive ides
1t has bound itself with the individ
ualistic theory that an irrigation righ
is a fixed title to a measured flow re
gardless of the necessity of subse
quent enlarged development"
The finale of this can only be thai
vast areas for which, under proper
distribution and use, there is ample
water must ever remain arid, useless
desert of no value to man or the
state.
The Snake river drainage provides
an annual run-off which may be used
or irrigation sufficient to give every
acre of southern Idaho land that is
able an adequate supply.
The problem is to so distribute and
use that this is all available.
BEST SOLUTION.
The simplest and, in the long run
the cheapest, solution to the whole
question of supply would be the con
struction of the American Falls res
ervoir jointly by the state and fed
eral government and then complete
state administration of the entire ir
rigation industry. Eventually that is
what will be done.
In the meantime so per cent OF the
water appropriations of Idaho today
are in excess of acual dnty. Fifty
per cent of the water taken from the
streams of the state and diverted as
private and corporate rights never
perform duty.
The great drainage problems, such
as that in the Nampa-Meridian dis
trict which is now requiring an ex-
penditure of three-quarters Of mil
lion dollars, are the result to large
extent Of excess application of water
The direct result Of the inability OF
the soil to utilize the water applied
and make it do irrigation duty.
DUG THEIR OWN PIT.
Had the irrigationists Of Boise val
lev used water s it should have been
used that district would not be under
the necessity of covering itself with a
blanket mortgage to get funds to dig
bitches to get rid of the water it per-
sists in applying and which it cannot
possibly use-beneficially.
knowledge of the duty of water and
then an administrative authority that
will compel use and not waste is what
Idaho needs more than anything else
at just this time.
1t is as reprehensible, as unfair, as
criminal, for an irrigatioEist to per-
nit water to waste through the sub
formation of his field as it is to per-
nit it to run unused through the
bitches on its surface.
When he does that he steals, liter
ally steals, from other acres that have
an equal right in natural equity and
guarantee with MS own,
the water they must have to be re-
claimed. When he does that he stands
between the state and its proper de-
yelopment. No individual has right
morally or otherwise to do his Nor
las he a right to assume that God Al
mighty created water for his ranch
md his alone!
Yet that is precisely what the area
'eduction instead of duty increase rec
of the irrigation law re-
5ision commission predicates.
FIXED QUANTITY DANGEROUS
A recommendation that fixes in the
minds of irrigationists the belief that
hey are possessed Of more than a
light to beneficial use Of water, that
hey are entitled to an inch, five