26 



RIGHTS TO WATER FROM SOUTH PLATTE AND TRIBUTARIES. 



Preliminar}^ to eniimeratino; the rights to ^Yater from the South 

 Platte which have been acquired in the States of Colorado and Ne- 

 braska it may be well to state briefly the status and nature of rights 

 in the two States. In Colorado rights are acquired by diversion and 

 use without public supervision, are defined by the courts, and when 

 defined and after the expiration of the two years allowed for appeal 

 are considered absolute rights to the quantity of water stated in the 

 decrees. (See p. 92.) These rights can be sold and transferred under 

 direction of the court, if others are not injured by the transfer. (See 

 p. 88.) This quantity, as a rule, bears no relation to the area irrigated 

 or the needs of the holder of the right. (See p. 92.) Rights are en- 

 forced by State officials. Rights in Nebraska have been acquired in 

 the same way as in Colorado up to the enactment of the law of 1895; 

 since that time they have been acquired by application to the State 

 board of irrigation, and the diversion and use of the water, are de- 

 fined by the board or the courts, and enforced by State officials. The 

 right is to sufficient water for the land to be irrigated, not to a fixed 

 quantity of water; is attached to a particular tract of land, and can 

 not be transferred to other land. (See p. 87.) The facts given in the 

 following pages regarding the water-right decrees, both as to the 

 nature of the decrees and the quantities of water decreed, are taken 

 from the report of W. B. Dunton. 



COLORADO. 



District 23. — District 23 comprises the country which is known as 

 South Park, which is drained by the headwaters of the South Platte. 

 (See map, PI. I.) The decree Avhich governs practically all the 

 rights in this district was rendered in August, 1889. It includes 

 ditches with priorities dating from 18()1 to 1888, and covers all the 

 rights which have been decreed, with the exception of a few small ones 

 amounting to 105.62 cubic feet per second, which haA'e been adjudicated 

 since. The decree awards the water to the various ditches on the basis 

 of their respective capacities. Each appropriator was aw^arded uncon- 

 ditionally the full amount of water which, he claimed his ditch would 

 carry, regardless of Avhether he had applied that amount to a bene- 

 ficial use. No attention was paid to the areas of land actually irri- 

 gated, but statements were given of the areas " to be watered " by the 

 ditches; however, the amounts of water awarded bore no relation 

 to the acreages stated. In almost all cases about twice, and in many 

 cases from three to ten times, the amount of water which the 

 ditches would actually carry were decreed. Not long after the ad- 

 judication 40 of the ditches whose rights were adjudicated were gauged 

 by an engineer. Only 8 out of the 40 had capacities equal to the right 



