Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1130529
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 06:44:21+00:00

Document:
360 APPROPRIATION OF WATER beneficial use, but not between on-channel and off-channel storage. Whether in these particular States it is the practice to require separate permits for feeder canals and for reservoirs, or one permit for both operations, apparently is optional with the administrator. In the Cache la Poudre Valley of Colorado is the locus of a system of exchanging water that will be touched upon in chapter 9. This, however, is pertinent to the present discussion, in that much of the water stored in this area is impounded at sites lower than the lands for the irrigation of which the rights were acquired. The Colorado water rights statute specifically authorizes, with prescribed safeguards, the exchange of water stored downstream for direct-flow diversions upstream.666 As carried out in the Cache la Poudre Valley, this system makes it possible for an irrigation company to store water in a reservoir located below its canals and its irrigated lands. The water so stored is to be delivered eventually to downstream canals in return for late season use by the reservoir owner of river water to which the downstream projects are entitled under their early direct-flow rights.667 The Montana Supreme Court rejected an argument of counsel that reservoirs should not be permitted in the course of or at the headwaters of adjudicated streams-provided that there be no interference by the reservoir with other rights to the use of the natural flow.668 In 1948, this court stated that it is of course elementary that a natural depression may be utilized as a reservoir if no one is injured thereby.669 Storage of water in the ground. -Water rights statutes of several States take notice of the practice of storing surface water in the ground for later withdrawal, and make provision for it. Thus in California, in parts of which this operation is extensively carried out,670 the storing of water in the ground, including diversion of stream water therefor, constitutes a beneficial use thereof if the stored water is thereafter applied to the beneficial purposes for which the storage appropriation was made.671 The Water Resources Control Board specifies for such appropriations 666Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 148-6-4 (1963). 667Hemphill, R. G., "Irrigation in Northern Colorado," U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin 1026 (1922). M*Donich v. Johnson, 77 Mont. 229, 240, 250 Pac. 963 (1926); Kelly v. Granite Bi-Metallic Consolidated Min. Co., 41 Mont. 1, 10-12, 108 Pac. 785 (1910). 669Perkins v. Kramer, 121 Mont. 595, 599, 198 Pac. (2d) 475 (1948). 670Richter, Raymond C. and Chun, Robert Y. D., "Artificial Recharge of Ground Water Reservoirs in California," Trans. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng. vol. 126, part III, No. 3274, pp. 742-761 (1961); Smith, Stephen C. and Bittinger, Morton W., "Managing Artificial Recharge through Public Districts," Am. Soc. Agr. Eng., Paper No. 62-709 (1962); Muckel, Dean C, "Replenishment of Ground Water Supplies by Artificial Means," USDA Tech. Bull. 1195 (1959); Mitchelson, A. T. and Muckel, Dean C, "Spreading Water for Storage Underground," USDA Tech. Bull. 578 (1937). 671 Cal. Water Code § 1242 (West 1956). Water replenishment districts: Cal. Water Code § § 60000-60449 (West 1966).

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