WATER STORAGE OX SWEETWATER AND SAN JACINTO RIVERS. 377 



In both these cases cited the dams had in reality wrought no injury to the lands 

 of plaintiffs seeking the destruction or removal of the dams. In the Sweetwater case 

 the lands of plaintiff Dojde are to-day supplying the greater poi'tion of the water 

 pumped into the Sweetwater distributing system In' the San Diego Land and Town 

 Companj-, even though the dam has been built for thirteen years, and during the 

 last five years practicallj' no water has passed it to the ti"act in question. 



Until some change in this respect is made in the laws it will not be safe or 

 prudent for parties contemplating the erection of storage dams to begin work before 

 the}' have secured a relinquishment of all riparian rights on the stream below them. 

 This safeguard is one which is not uncommonly resorted to, although it is slow and 

 expensive. The San Diego Land and Town Companj-, holding the title to all the 

 riparian rights from the upper end of its reservoir to the mouth of the Sweetwater, 

 is no longer concerned with adverse riparian rights, and fears no further attempts at 

 interference. 



RIGHTS TO WATER FOR MINING, POWER, AND DOMESTIC USES. 



Under this, the third, heading of the letter of instructions issued for the guidance 

 of the investigators, there is little to be said applicable to Sweetwater River. There 

 is no mining within the limits of the watershed, and consequently no water rights 

 for mining exist on the stream. Neither are there any valid rights for power, except 

 such as could be developed bj' the San Diego Land and Town Companj' at the 

 Sweetwater Dam and on its system of distribution. Water is sold and used for power 

 to operate one small mill. The community under the Sweetwater sj'stem enjoys its 

 domestic water under the same system as other cities, delivered as needed, and have 

 acquired prescriptive rights to the continued enjoyment of it in the future as in the 

 past. All along the vallej' of the Sweet\vater above the reservoir the right of 

 residents to use what water they require for domestic purposes is unquestioned. 



THE METHODS BY WHICH THE AMOUNT AND CHARACTER OF WATER RIGHTS 



ARE DETERMINED. 



PRIMARY WATER RIGHTS. 



There is absolutely no method discoverable by the writer b}' which the amount 

 of valid water rights ol>tained by appropriation from Sweetwater River can be 

 absoluteh' determined. This question has been discussed in the notes on the filings, 

 and it has seemed to the writer that no other method than a formal judicial inquiry 

 is competent to make the determination of the nature, extent, and volume of the 

 established rights. The onh' records are those alreadj' described, viz, six books of 

 miscellaneous records and three books of water-claim records, but one of which is 

 indexed in a way to facilitsite a search for the information sought. The books are 

 accessible enough, as all county records are, and may be seen every legal business 

 day of the j'ear between the hours of 9 a. m. and 5 p. m. But when placed in one's 

 hands there is nothing definite about them which will enlighten the investigator as to 

 which of the jumble of claims is valid and constitutes an established right and which 

 does not. 



