68 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



defined. The State engineer should be given charge of this matter and it 

 sliould be made necessary for every party desiring to appropriate water 

 hereafter to apply to the State engineer for a permit. No one should be 

 allowed to acquire a right without compliance with this provision. Taking 

 State water without a permit should be dealt with in the same way as cutting 

 timber from State land without a permit. It should be made a misdemeanor. 

 A regulation of this kind is indispensable to securing an accurate record of 

 rights to water or to protect existing rights. 



The State engineer should have authority to refuse these permits where 

 the water supply is exhausted or where the proposed use will be detrimental 

 to public interests. In order that he may act intelligently on these applica- 

 tions every party applying for a permit should be required to give notice in 

 some newspaper in the county where water is to be diverted of his intention 

 to make such application, and this notice should show the location and 

 amount of the proposed diversion. This will give parties likely to be 

 injured an opportunity to communicate with the State engineer before he 

 takes action. All permits issued should be made a matter of record in the 

 engineer's office. The time of completing a right should be fixed in the 

 permit, and when this time has expired the holders of the permits should be 

 required to submit proof of their appropriations before the tribunal charged 

 with the duty of determining them. 



NAVIGATION BIGHTS ON THE SACBAMENTO AND SAN JOAatTIN BIVERS. 



The largest volume of unused water in California comes from the 

 Saci'amento and San Joaquin valleys, and it is here that the greatest 

 development in the future will take place. It is not believed that this 

 increased use of water will seriously injure navigation interests, because a 

 large percentage of the water diverted will return to the stream as waste or 

 seepage. Irrigation will create a more uniform flow. There will be lower 

 water in the spring and higher water during the rainless season. But, in 

 order to avert any conflicts, the ci-eation of a State engineering or irrigation 

 bureau should be immediately followed by a conference with the officials 

 of the United States Government having supervision over navigable streams, 

 looking to such improvements of these rivers as will permit of the largest 

 possible use of water in irrigation. The complete utilization of these two 

 rivers will give California the largest rural population of any State in the 

 Union. Whatever expenditure is necessary to protect navigation interests 

 and enable this result to be brought about should be made. Even if it 

 requires the constraction of locks and the canalizing of both streams, the 



