Show Interstate Water Rights Water rights form a prolific source of contention and not a little litigation In this arid region land without water is usually of small value The water is the life of the land and while title to one is not exactly the same as the other the right to the use of water can be established estab-lished and secured by law while title to the ownership of land can bo obtained absolutely The question of local rights is sometimes some-times difficult to settle But when streams used for irrigation flow through several counties it becomes more complicated The difficulty is increased when the rights of people to the same stream indifferent in-different states is involved That is a question soon to come before the courts in Wyoming and Colorado The Laramie river takes its rise in the mountains of Colorado and as most people peo-ple know flows down into Wyoming where it is used by the farmers who have acquired rights to it for irrigating purposes pur-poses Recently a Colorado company has been formed which starting at a point above where the stream is diverted in Wyoming has built a canal to conduct the water to large area in Colorado Of course this has stirred up the Wyoming Wy-oming farraers and injunctions are the order of the day The questions to be decided de-cided will be theright of the state of Colorado Col-orado as to the river before it enters Wyoming Wy-oming and the rights of the settlers below be-low to the use of the stream as against those of persons taking it from above them Prior appropriation is the general principle prin-ciple recognized in all water litigation I as far as we areaware This should hold good against a state as well as against a company or an individual Proofs of I prior appropriation and use establish a claim to the reasonable use of the water of a stream If the people in Wyoming have such proofs and they cover claims to all the water of the stream in the irrigation I irriga-tion season it seems pretty clear that they cannot be deprived of those rights whether people invade them from another state or attempt to appropriate them within the lines of Wyoming |