Opinion ID: 2506186
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: appropriation and adverse use

Text: ¶ 6 We begin our analysis with a brief historical review of appropriation and adverse use of water in Utah. Under Utah's territorial laws, a statutory provision recognized the vesting of a water right [w]henever any person or persons shall have had the open, peaceable, uninterrupted and continuous use of water for a period of seven years. Compiled Laws of Utah § 2780, s.6 (1888). Case law applying section 2780 construed it as establishing a right to obtain title by adverse use. See, e.g., Ephraim Willow Creek Irr. Co. v. Olson, 70 Utah 95, 258 P. 216, 218 (1927). Following statehood, the Utah Legislature repealed the statute containing the adverse use provision with an appropriation statute. 1897 Utah Laws 219 (The rights to the use of any of the unappropriated waters of the State may be acquired by appropriation.). An adverse use statute never again appears in Utah statutory law. Wellsville E. Field Irr. Co. v. Lindsay Land & Livestock Co., 104 Utah 448, 137 P.2d 634, 655 (1943) (Hoyt, D.J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) ([Section 2780] was repealed in 1897 and has not since been reenacted either in substance or effect.). ¶ 7 In 1903, the legislature enacted a new act to govern the appropriation and use of water. See 1903 Utah Laws 88-107. The new act amended the appropriation statute to state that water rights could be acquired only by following the proper appropriation procedure, which included filing an application to appropriate with the state engineer. Id. at 97 (Rights to the use of any of the unappropriated water in the State may be acquired by appropriation, in the manner hereinafter provided, and not otherwise.); id. at 98 (requiring a prospective appropriators to first file an application with the state engineer). The wording of the appropriation statute was again changed in 1935, but the meaning of the statute remained the same: rights to unappropriated public water could be acquired only by first filing an application with the state engineer. 1935 Utah Laws 196. ¶ 8 Although the statutory scheme clearly prohibited the acquisition of water rights to unappropriated water by adverse use, the question remained whether previously appropriated water rights could be obtained through adverse use. This court answered the question in 1937, holding that as between private claimants, water rights in Utah can be acquired by adverse use[ ] and possession. Hammond v. Johnson, 94 Utah 20, 66 P.2d 894, 900-01 (1937). The decision was clear but short-lived. The 1939 legislature closed the door on Hammond by amending the appropriation statute to include the following sentence: No right to the use of water either appropriated or unappropriated can be acquired by adverse use or adverse possession. 1939 Utah Laws 148. This exact language still appears in the current appropriation statute. See Utah Code Ann. § 73-3-1 (1989). Thus, since 1939, water rights in Utah cannot be obtained by adverse use. See Coll. Irr. Co. v. Logan River & Blacksmith Fork Irr. Co., 780 P.2d 1241, 1243 n. 2 (Utah 1989) (The 1939 amendment... abolished the doctrine of adverse use of water.).