Opinion ID: 2602225
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Wyoming Law Allows Substantial Time for Completion of Large Irrigation Projects for Good Cause Shown

Text: [¶ 30] Pursuant to § 41-4-506, permit applicants are allowed five years to complete a project and five more years to provide beneficial use. The state engineer can, for good cause shown, grant extensions of the original construction deadline period. Section 41-4-506. This court noted in Associated Enterprises, Inc. v. Toltec Watershed Improvement District, 578 P.2d 1359, 1365-66 (Wyo.1978): [Section] 41-4-506 finds its genesis in the common-law concept of due diligence which, in the context of water law, has been expressed as follows: [T]he law does not require any unusual or extraordinary efforts, but it does require that which is usual, ordinary, and reasonable. The diligence required in the prosecution of the construction of all works necessary for the diversion and application of water in an attempted appropriation of the same is that constancy or steadfastness of purpose or labor which is usual with men engaged in like enterprises, and who desire a speedy accomplishment of their designs. 2 Kinney on Irrigation and Water Rights, p. 1269. [¶ 31] Over the many decades of the project's development, numerous applications for extension were filed that explained the progress made since the last request for extension and reported additional irrigated acreage. By way of example, the August 28, 1920, extension request letter sets out: The Ray Ditch Main Canal was completed many years ago. The Enlargement of the LeClair-Riverton No. 3 was completed in 1916. In each case the lateral system is not yet complete and some portions of the lands under the systems are unable to receive water at the present time. Work has been carried on each year on every Government system on this Project but our Congressional appropriations have been so reduced that it has been impossible to complete the lateral system on any one unit.... [O]nly a small portion of the most urgent work could be accomplished. The extension request letter of September 24, 1926, is similar if a bit more positive in developments: Also during the period of the last extension there has been considerable extension work done on the lateral systems of the various units making it now possible to reach many tracts that were not previously able to receive water deliveries.... [T]he final completion of the construction work on the lateral systems is therefore dependent on the amounts appropriated for this purpose. [¶ 32] All the requested extensions were granted exhibiting the state engineer's conclusion that good cause was shown and adequate progress was being made on the project to warrant protecting the rights created by the original permit applications. We view the fact the project took more than fifty years to finish as not truly relevant. What constitutes reasonable time depends upon the circumstances in each case and particularly upon the magnitude of the enterprise and the difficulties encountered. Campbell, 100 P.2d at 142. The question of diligence must be determined in the light of all factors ... including the size and complexity of the project; ... the economic ability of the claimant; and the intervention of outside delaying factors such as wars, strikes and litigation. Colorado River Water Conservation District v. Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company, 171 Colo. 561, 468 P.2d 853, 856 (1970) (en banc) (citations omitted). As long as a water system as a whole is being completed with due diligence, it is inconsequential that a part of it proceeds slowly. The priority applies to the whole project. Colorado River Water Conservation District v. Twin Lakes Reservoir and Canal Company, 181 Colo. 53, 506 P.2d 1226, 1228 (1973) (en banc). [¶ 33] The true concern is whether it was continually developed over time without any significant gaps indicating termination or some other significant work stoppage. Lengthy development periods for complex projects are not unknown in our state. The water project in Van Tassel was thirty-three years in duration, and the irrigation project in Campbell took over forty-five years to complete. Van Tassel Real Estate & Live Stock Co., 49 Wyo. 333, 54 P.2d 906; Campbell, 55 Wyo. 347, 100 P.2d 124. Both projects were deemed to have been diligently developed, and those efforts were attributed to the individual appropriators. We see no authority for treating the holder of a Walton right any differently.