Opinion ID: 2638546
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Role of the State Engineer and the General Adjudication in Determining the Parties' Rights

Text: ¶ 29 The legislature created the office of the State Engineer to keep records of all established water rights and those to be acquired in the future, to supervise the distribution of the water, and to keep records of and regulate future appropriations and changes in the place of diversion, use and nature of the use. United States v. District Court, Utah, 121 Utah 1, 238 P.2d 1132, 1134 (1951); see also Utah Code Ann. § 73-2-1 (1989 & Supp.2002) (identifying responsibilities of the State Engineer). Due to the scarcity of water resources in our state, appropriation of water is tightly controlled and the State Engineer oversees each step in the application and appropriation process. No person has a right to appropriate or use water in this state without approval from the State Engineer. Utah Code Ann. § 73-3-1 (1989 & Supp.2002). When the appropriation of water rights is in dispute, the State Engineer can initiate a general adjudication of water rights by filing an action in district court to determine the various rights of water users. Id. § 73-4-1. After investigating the various claims, the State Engineer submits a proposed determination of the parties' rights to the district court for its consideration in ruling on the general adjudication. Id. § 73-4-11. ¶ 30 Of course, [t]he State Engineer is an executive, not a judicial officer, East Bench Irrig. Co. v. State, 5 Utah 2d 235, 300 P.2d 603, 606 (1956), and the State Engineer's decisions are not binding on the courts of this state. Id. The State Engineer acts in an administrative capacity and does not have authority to adjudicate the rights of water users. Whitmore v. Murray City, 107 Utah 445, 154 P.2d 748, 750 (1944). However, while the State Engineer's decisions are generally not binding on the courts, the State Engineer's decisions in a general adjudication or pursuant to a proposed determination are binding upon the parties unless and until a party files a timely objection to the proposed determination. Utah Code Ann. § 73-4-11 (1989 & Supp.2002); United States Fuel Co. v. Huntington-Cleveland Irrigation Co., 2003 UT 49, ¶ 15, 79 P.3d 945. ¶ 31 The State Engineer has determined, pursuant to a 1974 proposed determination of the general adjudication of all water rights in the lower Green River drainage, [7] that 60 cfs, rather than 80 cfs is sufficient to meet the needs of GRCC's stock holders during the irrigation season. [8] Therefore, we must resolve the tension between the amount of GRCC's actual need as determined by the State Engineer and the amount of its claim in the 1952 Amendment. [A] court must attempt to construe the contract so as to `harmonize and give effect to all of [its] provisions.' Dixon v. Pro Image, 1999 UT 89, ¶ 14, 987 P.2d 48 (quoting Nielsen v. O'Reilly, 848 P.2d 664, 665 (Utah 1993)). In interpreting these provisions, we must bear in mind that the State Engineer's role is to determine the actual needs of water users. Utah Code Ann. § 73-2-1 (1989 & Supp.2002). Moreover, we must also recognize that the State Engineer has special training in the operation and control of natural streams and irrigation and other artificial use and control of water and water rights and that he is especially qualified to understand the facts involved in these problems. East Bench Irrig. Co., 300 P.2d at 606. ¶ 32 In this case, the State Engineer's proposed determination is controlling over the parties' water rights descriptions in the 1952 Amendment because GRCC has never filed an objection to the proposed determination; it, therefore, cannot collaterally attack that determination in this lawsuit. See United States Fuel, 2003 UT 49 at ¶ 20, 79 P.3d 945. Indeed, the record shows that GRCC has long acquiesced in the State Engineer's proposed determination. Under section 73-4-11, timely objections to decisions of the State Engineer are to be made within ninety days of the issuance of the proposed determination. Utah Code Ann. § 73-4-11. While GRCC has recently asked the State Engineer to modify the proposed determination, this request was denied. In a letter directed to GRCC's counsel, the Attorney General, speaking on behalf of that office and the State Engineer, noted that 60 cfs was apparently not a problem [for GRCC] when the proposed determination was issued, ... and it is sufficient now for [GRCC'S] described beneficial uses. ¶ 33 Recognizing that the State Engineer's proposed determination is controlling as to the amount of water GRCC can properly claim in the 1952 Amendment amounts to persuasive evidence that the 1952 Amendment merely describes the parties' water rights. At this point in time, the State Engineer has determined that GRCC's water right is 60 cfs and Thayn's is 635 cfs. To construe the contract to reduce Thayn's right would be as illogical as to construe it to expand GRCC's, particularly since GRCC gets its water first and has no right to use any more. Given that limitation, if Thayn cannot use his water, it would be wasted. We will not interpret the contract to yield such inequitable results. See Peirce v. Peirce, 2000 UT 7, ¶ 19, 994 P.2d 193 (holding that absent express contractual language an equitable interpretation of a contract is preferred over an inequitable or unreasonable one). Thus, in light of the State Engineer's decision, we hold that the quantities mentioned in the 1952 Amendment do not set the upper limits of the parties' water rights because the amounts mentioned therein do not reflect the amounts of water that the parties currently need and can put to beneficial use, i.e., the amounts to which they are lawfully entitled by the decision of the State Engineer, to which no timely objection has been filed.