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Show Moss Make? Plea For Water Rights A strong argument fcr passage of a law to secure state and individual indi-vidual water rights was made this week by Senator Frank E. Moss in a speech before the National Na-tional Women's Democratic Club in Washington. Sentaor Moss, author of a water rights bill now before the Senate told his audience of the dangers of federal pre-emption. He also discussed the overall national water problem and the recently appointed Senate Committee on Water Resources. "One specialized but very important im-portant aspect of the conservation conserva-tion problem is the federal and state conflict on federal preemption pre-emption of water rights. This, like all water problems, is most acute in the west, but will be come more important to the entire en-tire country as conservation and allocated use become widespread. wide-spread. "All existing water rights have been secured under state law and now the federal government refuses to recognize these state laws and the individual rights granted under thern as binding on itself. "This controversy has accelerated accele-rated as more federal projects have been build in the west, and court decisions have held against the states. "We in the west, who have had the experiencewith this problem, believe that the orderly development devel-opment and expansion of water conservation demands the recognition rec-ognition of state laws, and the willingness of the federal gov- f ernment to apply for water J j rights in the same way as others r I do," he said. |