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NEBRASKA. 



In 1895 Nebraska adopted a system of water administration similar 

 in outline to the Wyoming system, but differing considerably in detail. 

 It ])rovided for the administrative defining of existing rights, for the 

 acquirement of rights under State supervision, and for the distribution 

 of water by State officials. 



The State board of irrigation is at the head of this system, but this 

 differs from the Wyoming board of control in that it is composed of 

 State officials having other duties instead of officials having to do only 

 with the administration of water laws. The board is composed of the 

 governor, the attorney-general, and the commissioner of public lands, 

 the governor being president. The board elects a secretary, who must 

 be a hydraulic engineer, and is commonly called the State engineer. 

 The secretary, with the consent of the board, employs an assistant, 

 who must be an engineer. 



It is made the first duty of the secretary to measure or cause to be 

 measured the flow of the streams of the State and to make additional 

 measurements from time to time for the information of the board in 

 considering applications to appropriate water and controversies that 

 arise in the distribution of water. 



Prior to the passage of the law of 1895 there was no provision for 

 defining water rights except as controversies arose, and until 1889 no 

 prescribed procedure for acquiring rights. In fact, it was not settled 

 whether rights could be acquired by appropriation or whether riparian 

 owners alone could use the water of the streams of the State. In 1889 

 a law was passed providing for the acquirement of rights by the pre- 

 vailing method of posting and filing notices, building works, and using 

 water. It has since been held that the passage of this law abrogated 

 the riparian rights of lands still belonging to the General Government, 

 and that prior to 1889 rights to water were acquired both by the 

 acquirement of riparian lands and by appropriation, and in case of con- 

 flict priority of accjuirement was to govern. (Crawford v. Hathaway, 

 93 NW., 791.) 



DEFINING RIGHTS. 



The first work undertaken by the State board of irrigation after its 

 creation was the defining of existing rights to water. 



Preparatory to the adjudication of existing rights the county clerks 

 were required to send to the board transcripts of all claims to water on 

 file in their respective offices. For tliis they were to receive 5 cents 

 per folio, to be paid by the counties, or they were allowed to send in 

 the original records without compensation. Such transcripts were 

 received from 44 counties, containing 780 claims. In all, about a 

 thousand claims to rights under the old laws have been filed. 



