244 CONSERVATION OF GROUND WATER 



that time the use of water has increased prodigiously, and 

 civilization has moved into areas where precipitation is chroni- 

 cally inadequate for its needs. The body of water law has 

 grown apace, particularly in the arid regions. 



The importance of water law to the development of the 

 West and the present status of the legal structure evolved in 

 the past century are summarized in a report of the Natural 

 Resources Planning Board in 1943: 12 



In the West, water is scarce and the dependence of agriculture 

 and of grazing upon the limited supply of this indispensable re- 

 source has given water an outstanding value. In the East, on the 

 contrary, water is more plentiful and the requirements of agricul- 

 ture and industry have not resulted in widespread controversies 

 over rights to the use of water. The water law of the West is, there- 

 fore, far more fully developed than the law relating to water in 

 the East. It can be said, too, that the urge toward improving the 

 effectiveness of the law of water in promoting conservation and 

 optimum use that is so strong today in the West is almost non- 

 existent in the East where the problem is much smaller, existing 

 defects are less important, and interest in improving the operation 

 of the laws almost not apparent. . . . 



From a small beginning in the gold mining regions of California 

 nearly one hundred years ago the western states have erected a 

 structure of water laws without which the present development of 

 western agriculture would not have taken place. Dams have been 

 built, ditches dug, farms and orchards planted, and communities 

 established with reasonable assurance that protection would be 

 afforded in the continued exercise of their all-important water 

 rights. The fundamental principles of water law, upon which the 

 largest part of this development has been predicated, have been 

 tested under widely varying circumstances and have proved sound 

 and workable. Nevertheless, the structure is most intricate in its 

 present design and operation and it would be erroneous to con- 

 exercise of such right, he intercepts or drains off the water collected from the 

 underground springs in his neighbor's well, this inconvenience to his neigh- 

 bor falls within the description of damnum absque injuria, which cannot be- 

 come the ground of an action." 



12 "State Water Law in the Development of the West," Natural Resources 

 Planning Board, Subcommittee on State Water Law, pp. 1-2, 1943. 



