WATER APPROPRIATION FROM KINGS RIVER. 321 



How completely ownership in the waters of a stream is sometimes assumed is 

 illustrated by the agreement covering a sale of water and of land which was made by 

 the owners of the River Ranch (Laguna de Tache Rancho) with the now defunct Sunset 

 Irrigation District in 1892. The control of the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company 

 has passed into the hands of English capital. The controlling interest is reported to 

 be held, as already stated, by the same persons who control the Kings River and 

 Fresno Canal, and who are the principal owners of the great riparian tract — the Laguna 

 de Tache Rancho. This is the riparian land whose former owners secured decrees of 

 court forever restraining the same Kings River and Fresno Canal from diverting any 

 water at all, and which also secured similar decrees against the Fowler Switch Canal 

 and the Centerville and Kingsburg Canal, and a decision almost as sweeping against 

 the 76 Canal. According to the agreement referred to, George Clarke Cheape and 

 his associates, owners of the Lagunda de Tache Rancho, assumed the right to sell 

 of the waters of Kings River to the extent of 3,500 cubic feet per second, but in 

 making this sale compelled a recognition of the prior right of the Fresno Canal to 

 3,000 cubic feet per second, and of the prior right of the Grant Canal, irrigating 

 the Laguna de Tache Rancho, to the extent of 5CK) cubic feet per second. The price 

 agreed upon and paid for this water and for about 2,200 acres of land was $250,000 

 in irrigation district bonds. 



This transaction is a forceful indication of the extent of the rights sometimes 

 assumed to be conferred bj' the riparian doctrine, and seems to be a literal interpre- 

 tation of the right to have the river water — in flood as well as at its lowest stage — 

 flow undiminished in quantity. Such an interpretation would, it is quite evident, 

 make it possible for the most favorably located riparian owner, the one owning lands 

 farthest downstream, to levy upon every appropriator above, whether he-is damaged 

 in fact or not. 



NEED OF A DEPARTMENT FOR WATER CONTROL. AND INVESTIGATION. 



The existing conditions of Kings River, which are typical of those which prevail 

 on Kern, Tule, Keweah, San Joaquin, Merced rivers, and other streams of the San 

 Joaquin Valley point to the need of a State department to determine established 

 rights to the use of water, to measure the quantities of ^yater that are available, to 

 distribute the water to those who have rights, and to study the economic use of 

 water and the possibilities of water storage, and of water conservation. 



When the question arises as to how such a department shall be organized, it will 

 be well to look to other States where experience has already been had. 



It is not the intention of this paper to elaboi-ate a scheme for this purpose. There 

 is no reason wh}' it should not succeed here as well as in Wj'oming. The department 

 should have certain judicial functions. Its acts should be subject to review and 

 confirmation by the courts. Its duties need not be restricted to the irrigation inquiry 

 alone, but may be extended to drainage and to such other matters as are ordinarily 

 assigned to departments of public works. In this department all rights to the use of 

 any water heretofore granted, or to be granted, by the State should be recorded, and 

 in it a cai-eful and complete record of the physical facts relating to each water 

 appropriation should be preserved. 



In determining the measure of the right to use water, not only ditch capacity and 



23S56— No. 100—01 21 



