OCR Text |
Show Engineer Requests Compromise On Bear River Suits Proposed litigation byj a group of j Bear river water users residing in Idaho, as a means of determining rights to the river waters now, was opposed Wednesday by State Engineer En-gineer T. II. Humphreys of Utah as being too costly to the w.tter users and as a "slap" at the slate legislatures of Utah, Utah and Wyoming. Wyo-ming. Mr. Humphreys' position was explained ex-plained in a letter addressed to J. Warren Sirrine and W. J. Hunter of Montpelier. members of the Idaho Ida-ho Bear river committee, who ;e-qnested ;e-qnested a conference this week with the Uta.li official "to talk over the subject of the proposed water lawsuit," In answer to the request Mr. Humphreys stated that reorganiza tion of the Utah state government is in course and it would be unwise un-wise for any officer to attempt to commit the state on any course of action at this time, "particularly on matters pertaining to interstate (Continued on page S) Q O (Continued from page one) Water Suits waters." "It is suggested therefore, that you defer the proposed conference until the state officers will have been appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate," Mr. Humphreys wrote. The state engmeer said generally speaking he was definitely opposed to lawsuits as a means of determining deter-mining water rights either in this state, or in adjoining states where Utah is interested. "Let me say," he continued, "that the public and the Utah water users stand absolutely with the state engineer on this matter." "This is true with respects o lawsuits relating to waters of the Bear river particularly, since the legislatures of all three states have recently passed laws making It possible to adjudicate the river waters wa-ters by compact, which would save the water users thousands of dollars. dol-lars. "For, tiny one of the three states to instigate a suit now to determine deter-mine rights on Bear river before there is an attempt made to write a compact, might be interpreted as a slap at the legislatures and in bad taste," Mr. Humpherys wrote. Two groups of Idaho Bear river water users previously conferred with the state engineer relative to division of the water and agreed to the position taken bv the Utah official. T am urging you to forget lawsuits law-suits for the present,'' Mr. Humpherys Hum-pherys concluded in his letter "and use your efforts as members of the Idaho committee in preparing prepar-ing a working agreement for distribution dis-tribution of water this year, pending pend-ing the time when machinery can be set up and a compact written for all three states on Bear river." |