Opinion ID: 1150958
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Date of Dedication.

Text: Silver Lake insists that Mr. Lear's intent to dedicate the water rights to public use was not clear until 1978, when Silver Lake served its first customer. Therefore, Silver Lake argues that its water rights should be valued according to its cost of reproduction or replacement as of 1978. Conversely, the Commission maintains that Mr. Lear's intent to dedicate to public use was clear in 1968, based on testimony and evidence demonstrating that a master plan had been developed for the Silver Lake area in 1968. The applications filed with the State Engineer in 1968 stated that Mr. Lear's intended use of the water was quasi-municipal. No evidence indicates that the water rights were ever intended for anything other than public use from the outset. We hold that the Commission had substantial evidence to find that the water rights were dedicated to public use in 1968. In so doing, however, we do not mean to infer that a utility is precluded from including verifiable expenditures after the date of filing applications. Here, however, Silver Lake failed to submit any costs beyond 1968. Consequently, the date of dedication is irrelevant for all practical purposes under these unusual circumstances.