Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1130785
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 03:01:25+00:00

Document:
616 EXERCISE OF THE APPROPRIATIVE RIGHT inefficiency which so often are found to attend the continuous delivery to farms of a multiplicity of small "heads" or "streams," as they are variously called.118 Likewise, rotation is sometimes practiced as among independent diversions of water from watercourses as a result of court decrees or agreement of the water users. The practice requires a schedule under which each water user is entitled to divert the entire flow of the stream (or that fraction of the flow to which those involved in the plan are entitled to divert in the aggregate) for, say, one, two, or three consecutive days during each 15-day period. The length of each particular water user's time of use-or turn-during each period is computed according to the ratio which his appropriative right bears to all rights involved in the schedule. Like all other variations from the strict plan of diversion of streamflow according to priorities of right, a rotation plan imposed by court decree upon a group of water users must be equitable to them all with full regard for their rights as against each other; and such a plan, whether imposed by the court or entered into by common agreement of the parties, must not infringe the rights of others on the stream who are not parties to the plan. Under many sets of circumstances, and particularly during periods of water shortage, rotation in the complete diversion of a streamflow to the use of which a number of users are collectively entitled gives better results than does the continuous diversion by each water-right holder of his small fraction of the total flow. It is true that in certain areas the prevailing topographic and soil conditions, landownerships, character of crops grown, and cultural habits of the farmers are such as to encourage the use of small streams for long periods of time. Under other circumstances, large heads for shorter periods are preferable.119 Where conditions are such as to favor the use of large streams for short periods, and appropriators therefore have only intermittent need for the quantities of water they have appropriated, a plan of rotation may improve the exercise of the junior rights without materially impairing those of their seniors. Statutory Authorization to Rotate Water Uses Statutes of several Western States specifically authorize appropriations of water from a common supply to rotate in the use of water to which they are collectively entitled.120 118Hutchins, Wells A., "Delivery of Irrigation Water," U. S. Dept. Agr., Tech. Bull. 47, pp. 7-24 (1928). 119Hutchins, supra note 118, at pp. 22-24. 120Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 45-245(B) (1956); Kans. Stat. Ann. § § 42-340 to -347 (1964); Nebr. Rev. Stat. § 46-231 (1968); Nev. Rev. Stat. § 533.075 (Supp. 1967); Oreg. Rev. Stat. § 540.150 (Supp. 1969); Wash. Rev. Code § 90.03.390 (Supp. 1961); Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 41-70 (1957).

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