IRRIGATION LEGISLATION. 



RESERVOIR SITES WITHDRAWN BY THE GOVERNMENT. 



BY CLESSON S. K1NNEY. 



THE needs and necessity of irrigation 

 legislation which will definitely settle 

 some of the vexed questions upon the sub- 

 ject of water rights are becoming more and 

 more apparent in all of the Western States. 

 la the face of this necessity appear great 

 difficulties. The law of vested rights 

 stands in the way as the greatest stum- 

 bling-block. If effective laws had been 

 passed when the country was new, and the 

 various rights which are now vested had 

 not been acquired, the task would be easy. 

 But at an early day the great needs and 

 necessities of the future were not recog- 

 nized either by the general government or 

 by the various States. It is only by ex- 

 perience that some wisdom comes. In re- 

 viewing the legislation of Congress it seems 

 strange that such definite and strict laws 

 were passed relative to the acquisition of 

 title to lands and at the same time let the 

 element which is absolutely necessary to 

 make those lands valuable, take care of 

 itself. This is the experience. The wis- 

 dom has come too late in many States. 

 But be that as it may, the fact is that Con- 

 gress is divested of the power to pass any 

 general law that will govern the subject. 

 It devolves upon the States to work their 

 way out of the difficulty as best they can. 

 That there are difficulties is illustrated by 

 the Supreme Court of Nebraska declaring 

 the irrigation law of that State unconstitu- 

 tional; by the Circuit Court of the United 

 States declaring the most elaborate law 

 that was ever passed on the subject the 

 Wright law also unconstitutional. In 

 many of the States the constitutionality of 

 their irrigation law has not been tested. 

 Several of the States have laws which are 

 copied after the Wright law. All are wait- 

 ing until the Supreme Court of the United 

 States shall finally decide the question. 



GOVERNMENT RESERVOIR SITES. 



Some years ago surveyors sent out by 

 the general government located a great 

 number of reservoir sites throughout the 



inter-mountain country. These sites as 

 located were withdrawn from the market 

 so that they could not be entered by set- 

 tlers and are still owned and held by the 

 government ostensibly for the purpose for 

 which they were located. They consist of 

 natural depressions and basins, sometimes 

 dry, but at other times are lakes of con- 

 siderable size filled with water. The pur- 

 pose of the government in locating these 

 sites, according to the scheme of Major 

 Powell, was for the government to con- 

 struct at its own expense these reservoirs, 

 and thus be enabled to dispose of its lands 

 in the neighborhood of the same at a cor- 

 respondingly higher price. This scheme 

 was all very beautiful if it had been car- 

 ried out; but when we come to consider 

 that through all these years not a single 

 reservoir located by the government has 

 ever been constructed by it, another phase 

 of the question is seen. 



These sites which were located were of 

 the very best that could be found. They 

 are still held by the government, thus pre- 

 venting their being located by private par- 

 ties. The only reservoirs which have 

 been constructed to date are those con- 

 structed by private enterprise. Many of 

 the government sites would have been lo- 

 cated and long before this the reservoirs 

 would have been constructed had it not 

 been for the obstruction of the government 

 location. 



One of two things ought to be done. 

 Either the government ought to carry out 

 the original scheme and construct these 

 reservoirs, or the law ought to be modified 

 so that the sites could be located and 

 reservoirs constructed by private parties. 

 There is not much confidence in this 

 western country that the government will 

 ever construct them. But if the sites are 

 opened up for private location the law 

 ought to be so that they can only be lo- 

 cated for reservoir purposes and not en- 

 tered for farming purposes. 



