Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1130276
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 03:11:49+00:00

Document:
CLASSIFICATION OF NAVIGABLE WATERS 107 cannot affect titles vested in the United States." In a marginal note, the Court referred to the fact that in 1927 the Utah Legislature passed an act declaring "The Colorado River in Utah and the Green River in Utah" to be navigable streams.26 Notwithstanding the recognition of the Supreme Court in United States v. Utah that none of the river sections in litigation constituted navigable waters of the United States, but that certain sections were found to be navigable and their beds therefore the property of the State of Utah, the master recommended insertion of a proviso in the decree that the United States "shall in no wise be prevented from taking any such action in relation to said rivers or any of them as may be necessary to protect and preserve the navigability of any navigable waters of the United States."27 Utah excepted to this recommen- dation. The Court stated that while a statement to that effect was not necessary, as the United States would have that authority in any event, nevertheless the provision was not inappropriate in a decree determining the right, title", or interest of the United States and of Utah, respectively, in relation to the beds of the rivers in question.28 Protection of navigability of the downstream course of the Colorado River was not involved in the instant case; but the Colorado certainly was29 and is a navigable stream of the United States. Undoubtedly, the right of protective action on the part of the United States acknowledged by the Court and approved in the decree would apply equally to all the upstream channels involved in the litigation, regardless of classification of the several sections as navigable or nonnavigable. As ordered by the decree entered in United States v. Utah, title to the beds of the navigable portions of these rivers within the borders of Utah was vested in the State of Utah, and title to the nonnavigable portions was vested in the United States. Other Waters Related to Navigability Nonnavigable Stretches of a Stream It is well recognized that navigability, in behalf of which the commerce clause may be invoked, "may be of a substantial part only of the waterway in question."30 A Supreme Court decision was rendered in 1931 in an original suit brought by the United States against the State of Utah to quiet title to portions of "Citing Utah Laws 1927, ch. 9, p. 8. " United States v. Utah, 283 U. S. 64, 90 (1931). "The statement was inserted in the decree: United States v. Utah, 283 U.S. 801, 804 (1931). 29In Arizona v. California, 283 U.S. 423, 452-456 (1931), the Supreme Court declared the Colorado to be a navigable river of the United States. 30 United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co., 311 U. S. 377, 410 (1940).

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