OCR Text |
Show WATER LAW AS PROPOSED of the pr-: c?d bill which wort d re -ulate the use of under . ror.r.d water . in Utah. The state has a law in effect which regulates the use of surface sur-face wSer and to the experienced H irrigation farmer, it will be seen that the proposed law would closely pattern pat-tern the statutes now in force regarding re-garding surface water. PROPOSED LEGISLATION Sec. xl. Under ground water. Any person, association or corporation in legal possession of any tract of land under which, together with adjoining tracts, there is presumed to be a . supply of underground water, other than that defined in section 1 of this chapter, shall, befor making material ma-terial draft on such supply by wells, pumping or other means, except for culinary, domestic or stock watering purposes, file with the state engineer a notice of intention with reference to such draft of water and its use. Sec. x2. Form cf notice of intention. inten-tion. Such notice shall be upon a blank to be furnished by the state name and postoffice address of the person, corporation or association giving notice; the nature of the pro-nosed pro-nosed use; the quantity of water in acre feet or the flow of water in second-feet to be used and the time during which it is to be used each year; the dimensions, grade, shape and nature of any proposed diverting channel; and such other facts as wi.l clearly define the full purpose of the proposed use. The notice shall show the legal subdivisions of land under which ownership of water is claimed, and if the use is for irrigation those lands proposed to be irrigated, with the total acreage thereof, and the character of the soih If the pro-posed pro-posed use is for milling or mining, , the notice shall shew the name of ' the mill and its location, and of the mine and mining district in which it is situated, the nature of the mineral or minerals mined, and the place where the water is to be returned to a natural stream or source. Sec. x3. Duty and proceeding by engineer on notices-filings and record. rec-ord. On receipt of said notice it shall be the dnty of the state engineer engi-neer to make an endorsement thereon there-on of the date of its receipt, and to .V make a record of such receipt in a book kept in his office for that purpose. pur-pose. It shall be his duty to examine said notice and ascertain if it sets . forth all the above required facts; and if not, it shall be returned with he statement of correction, amendments, amend-ments, or changes required, within thirty days after its receipt and six-y six-y days shall be allowed for the reading read-ing thereof. The date of the return 1 of the notice, with the reasons therefor, there-for, shall be endorsed on the notice and a record made there of in a book it pt for recording notices. Like entries en-tries shall be made of the date when corrected notices are received by the state engineer. Sec. x4. Publication contents. If I not corrected as required no further proceedings shall be had on any such ' notice, but when filed in compliance with this Act, the state engineer shall at once at the expense of the applicant, appli-cant, to be paid in advance, publish in a newspaper having general circu-I circu-I lation within the county where the land possessed by the applicant is located, lo-cated, a statement showing by whom notice is filed; the quantity of water sought to be used; the use for which it is to be claimed and the means by which it is to be used ; the description de-scription of land possessed by applicant ap-plicant and that to be irrigated, if for irrigation ; which statement shall be published at least once a week for a period of four weeks. Sec. x5. Protest-contents-action by engineer. Any person, corporation or association interested may, at any time during publication and within thirty days after the completion of the publication of said statement, file with the state engineer, a written verified protest in duplicate against the proposed use, stating the reason therefor.. .And the end of the above allowed period for protest the state engineer shall, if there have been no protests filed, issue to the applicant appli-cant a record certificate setting out the date of filing of the notice of intention, the book and page in which said publication was made, and the fact that no protests have been filed. Such record certificate shall be evidence evi-dence of the compliance of the applicant appli-cant with the provisions of this act, of limit of beneficial use set, and cf the recognition of other lights in a common underground supply. Sec. x6. Action on protests. It shall be the duty of the state engineer engi-neer to furnish anyone filing notice of intention with a duplicate of all protests filed against suih intention within a period designated in Sec. x5 hereof, and allow a reasonable time for answering such protest. The matter mat-ter set out in protests and answers shall be considered by the state engineer en-gineer and he shall not issue a record rec-ord certificate where such consideration consider-ation leads to his opinion that no iegal claim by applicant to the water sought exists. He shall have authority authori-ty to reduce in the certificate the quantity of underground water stated in the notice to such amount as will insure a fair division of the total supply of such sources and, subject to appeal as in the matter of regular applications, and reduced quantity de- scribed in the record certificate shall be the limit of draft by the owner of the right. Sec. x7. General provisions of water law to apply. The provisions of Chapter 67, Session Laws of 1919, as to the waste or misuse of surface,, waters are hereby. extended to the use of underground or percolating waters, as are also to the provisions of said chapter relating to appeal to the district court from decision of the state engineer. The state engineer and accredited representatives of his office shall have at all times access to the wells, plant and means of diversion di-version for the purpose of measuring flow, pressure, and draft of underground under-ground water and obtaining any information in-formation which will serve to benefit in establishing records of underground under-ground supply and use thereof. Sec. x8. Any person, association or corporation failing to comply with the provisions of this act as to underground under-ground waters, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. |