Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1139102
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 17:01:46+00:00

Document:
720 drawn, no overlying owner or appropriator could claim a paramount right to the full quantity of \#ater he had been pumping, nor had he fully lost his right to pump by reason of the continued pumping by others. All parties were restricted to a proportionate reduction in the quantities of water they had been pumping, the total annual pumpage from the basin being limited to the safe yield. Administration of the Water Code provisions relating to the appro- priation of water, determination of water rights, and distribution of water is vested in the State Department of Public Works and exercised through the State Engineer.44 It is declared to be the established policy of the State that the use of water for domestic purposes is the highest use of water and that the next highest use is for irrigation;45 and an application by a municipality to appropriate water for its use or the use of its inhabitants for domestic purposes is to be considered first in right, irrespective of whether it is first in time.46 The right of a munici- pality to acquire and hold water rights not only for existing but for future use is specifically provided for, temporary appropriations by others being authorized with respect to the surplus over the existing needs of the municipality pending the time it is ready to use the surplus 47 Waters made subject to appropriation by the Water Code are only surface water, and "subterranean streams flowing through known and definite channels." *8 This necessarily excludes percolating water, the surplus of which over the needs of overlying landowners is appropriable pursuant to decisions of the supreme court, noted above, but not under the statutory procedure. The appropriability of return flow is indicated by the declaration that unappropriated water subject to appropriation includes "Water which having been appropriated or used flows back into a stream, lake or other body of water." 49 An appropriation is initiated by applying to the Department for a permit, the holder being issued a license upon completion of the project.50 This is the exclusive method of acquiring an appropriative right to the use of any water to which the 44 Calif. Water Code, § 1050.5. 48 Calif. Water Code, § 106. The supreme court, in East Bay Municipal Utility Dist. v. State Department of Public Works, 1 Calif. (2d) 476, 477-481, 35 Pac. (2d) 1027 (1934), upheld the action of the State agency in imposing a condition, in issuing a permit to appropriate water for power purposes, that the right to store and use water under the permit should not interfere with future appropriations of such water for agricultural or municipal purposes. 46 Calif. Water Code, § 1460. 47 Calif. Water Code, §§ 106.5, 1203, and 1460 to 1464. 48 Calif. Water Code, § 1200. 49 Calif. Water Code, § 1202 (d). 50 Calif. Water Code, §§ 1250 to 1677.

References: § 1050
 § 106
 v. 
 § 1460
 § 1200
 § 1202