THE STATE ENCxINEER AND HIS RELATION TO 



IRRIGATION. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The ofRce of State en<j:;ineer is ])e('uliar to the arid States, and the 

 duties of the ollice have to do chief!}' with irrigation. These duties 

 range from merely making hydrographic survej^s, as in Oregon, to 

 practically conij)lete control of the water supply, as in Nevada. It is 

 true, however, that in most of the arid vStates whatever there is of piih- 

 lic control of the use of water centers in the office of State engineer. 

 A comparative study of the work of the engineers involves, therefore, 

 the whole subject of public control of water. 



The final purpose of the creation of the ofiice of State engineer is the 

 delivery of the water to which he is entitled to each farmer whose farm 

 is under irrigation, and a necessary preliminary to this is a knowledge of 

 how much each is entitled to. The early laws governing irrigation 

 were not such as to provide a record of rights, and it is therefore neces- 

 sary to provide means for defniing existing rights. This in some States 

 has been committed to the engineer, in others he makes surveys to assist 

 the courts in this work, while in others he has nothing to do with it. 

 To avoid future troul)le, it is also necessary that hereafter rights be 

 defined as they are acciuired, and several States have provided that 

 rights be accpiired under the supervision of the engineer, while others 

 still have no provision for supervising the acquirement of rights, but 

 leave the defining of the rights to be done when controversy regarding 

 them arises. The final act — the distribution of the water of streams 

 to those entitled to it — is in some States all that devolves upon the 

 engineer, while in some States the engineer has not this duty, but has a 

 part in the proper defining of rights. 



It is the purpose of this report to describe the methods used in the 

 different States for accomplishing fhe three acts — defining existing 

 rights, supervising the accpiirement of new rights, and distributing 

 water — and in exercising whatever additional control over irrigation 

 exists, in the hope that this comparative study may bring out the 

 strong and weak points in the different systems and help toward the 

 adoption of the best methods in all the States. 



In this report the States which have now or have had engineers are 

 taken up in the order in which the office was created. 



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