Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1130416
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 00:36:29+00:00

Document:
WHO MAY APPROPRIATE WATER 247 Wyoming: "Municipal corporations shall have the same right as individuals to acquire rights by prior appropriation and otherwise to the use of water for domestic and municipal purposes,* * *."114 Preferences in obtaining water supplies.-Wherever preferences in appropri- ating water are provided for, domestic use stands highest and municipal use is closely associated with it. This results naturally from the indispensability of water to human life, and from the overriding need for water in other activities carried on in human communities.115 Appropriation of water by municipality for future use.- (1) Legislation. Statutes of several States provide for appropriation of water to meet the growing needs of municipalities. Thus, in Arizona and Oregon, applications for municipal uses may be approved to the exclusion of all subsequent appropri- ations if the estimated needs of the municipality so indicate.116 A California municipality may appropriate water in excess of its existing needs, the excess being subject to temporary appropriation by others pending the growth of the municipal requirements. When the municipality is ready to use the additional water to which it has claim, the holders of temporary permits are entitled to compensation for the loss of use of their facilities thus rendered valueless. Or in lieu of temporary permits, the municipality may be authorized to become as to the surplus a public utility, subject to the jurisdiction of the State Public Utilities Commission.117 In South Dakota, a municipality may appropriate water for contemplated future resonable needs under the procedure applicable to existing needs. Others may make temporary appropriations of the surplus above existing needs pending the time the municipality is ready to use it.118 The section of the Utah statute relating to forfeiture of a water right for nonuse for a period of 5 years authorizes extensions of time upon a showing of reasonable cause for such nonuse, one of the reasonable causes thus recognized being "the holding of a water right without use by any municipality * * * to meet the reasonable future requirements of the public."119 (2) Court decisions. The water appropriation act of Texas does not, in specific terms, authorize a municipality to make a present appropriation of water for future use. But a court of civil appeals indicated its approval of the discussion at notes 1011-1012 regarding articles 7472 and 7472a which provide that certain appropriations shall be granted subject to the right of municipalities to make later appropriations for domestic and municipal purposes, without condemnation. U4Wyo. Const., art. XIII, § 5. 115 Attention to this aspect of water rights law is given below under the sub topic "Restric- tions and Preferences in Appropriation of Water-Preferences in Water Appropriation." 116 Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 45-143(B) (1956); Oreg. Rev. Stat. § 537.190(2) (Supp. 1969). 117Cal. Water Code § § 1203, 1460, 1461, 1463 (West 1956), 1462 and 1464 (West Supp. 1970). 118 S. Dak. Comp. Laws Ann. § 46-5-38 (1967). 119 Utah Code Ann. § 73-1-4(1968).

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 § 45
 § 537
 § 1203
 § 46
 § 73