Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1130178
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 04:27:59+00:00

Document:
DECLARATIONS OF POLICY 9 enactment of these different Western laws for the purpose of furthering the growth and prosperity of these States by means of irrigation.44 Declaring the beneficial use of water to be a public use, a Washington statute authorizes any person to condemn property or rights necessary to effectuate such beneficial use, including the right to condemn an inferior use of water for a superior one.45 Beneficial Use of Water Need of a useful or beneficial purpose. -The concept that to accord with the public policy of the State, use of the public water must be made for a useful or beneficial purpose, is fundamental in the water law philosophy of the West. This holds true regardless of classification of the particular State as arid or semiarid. The concept is declared in specific terms in the majority of Western State constitutions. Positive statements and necessary implications appear in all western "water codes." The principle runs through the leading water rights decisions of the courts. Exceptions and deviations from a strict application of the long-established principle exist and in some situations have caused serious difficulties. Nevertheless, the declaration that "Beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure, and the limit of the right to the use of water" has been controlling in the acquisition and exercise of appropriative rights throughout the history of the West and it has come more and more to pervade riparian philosophy as well. (1) Constitutional declarations.-Thus, in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, existing rights to the use of water for "useful or beneficial" purposes are recognized and confirmed (see "Rights to the Use of Water," below).46 The constitutions of Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming link the right of appropriation of water with its beneficial use.47 New Mexico adds the time-honored rule that "Beneficial use shall be the basis, the measure and the limit of the right to the use of water."48 Montana holds the use of water ap- propriated, not only for sale, rental, or distribution, but also for "other bene- ficial use" to be a public use.49 The Texas constitutional amendment includes within public rights and duties the control, storing, preservation, and distribution of waters for all useful purposes.50 The California amendment declares that the water right is limited to the quantity of water reasonably required for the bene- ficial use to be served, and does not extend to the "waste or unreasonable use or unreasonable method of use or unreasonable method of diversion of water."51 "Clark v.Nash, 198 U.S. 361, 370 (1905). 4S Wash. Rev. Code § 90.03.040 (Supp. 1961). See State ex rel. Andersen v. Superior Court, 119 Wash. 406, 411, 205 Pac. 1051 (1922). 46Ariz. Const., art. XVII, § 2; N. Mex. Const., art. XVI, § 1; Utah Const., art. XVII, § 1. 47Colo. Const., art. XVI, § 6; Idaho Const., art. XV, § 3; Nebr. Const., art. XV, § § 5 and 6; N. Mex. Const., art. XVI, § 2; Wyo. Const., art. VIII, § 3. 48 N. Mex. Const., art. XVI, § 3. 49Mont. Const., art. Ill, § 15. 50 Tex. Const., art. XVI, § 59a. 51 Cal. Const., art. XIV, § 3.

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