Administrative Law: Water Rights & Resources in Utah by Tasha Warnock: Administrative Law: Water rights and resources in Utah; The Colorado River Compact

Administrative law is comprised of several agencies that have been conferred power by the legislature.

 This libguide will be an introduction to the agencies and laws that control the water rights and regulations in Utah.

UTAH BOARD OF WATER RESOURCES

The Division and Board of Water Resources were created in 1967. They replaced the Utah Water and Power Board established in 1947 and were assigned the functions of the Water and Power Board enumerated in the Utah Code Annotated, Title 73, Chapter 10.

The division and board are responsible for promoting the orderly and timely planning, conservation, development, utilization, and protection of Utah’s water resources and to enhance the quality of life for the citizens of the state. The division is one of seven agencies of the Utah Department of Natural Resources. The eight members of the Board of Water Resources are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate. They represent individual river basins and work with local government and private interests to develop local water resources and water distribution systems. Division and board policies encourage water development from local initiatives rather than from state or federal mandates.

Responsibilities of the Board/Division of Water Resources are:

A. Protect Utah’s Rights to Interstate Waters - The director of the division is Utah’s Interstate Streams Commissioner and helps protect Utah’s rights in interstate streams from infringement by the federal government or other states. Utah is a party to interstate compacts on the Colorado and Bear rivers. The Board with the concurrence of the governor appoints commissioners to serve on the Bear River Commission. The division is associated with several interstate and state/federal organizations including the Western States Water Council, Upper Colorado River Commission, Bear River Commission, Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum, National Water Resources Association and the Colorado River Water Users Association.

B. Comprehensive State Water Planning - The division formulated a State Water Plan, published in 1990, and has developed eleven individual river basin plans through a coordinated process to evaluate existing water resources in the state, assess future needs and determine waterrelated issues, and recommend how and by whom they can be resolved. The plan identifies programs and practices of state and federal agencies, water users groups, and environmental interests and describes the state’s current and future water-related needs. The basin plans are continually updated using current population and demographic projections, hydrologic data, river basin simulations, water supply and demand models, and water-related land use inventories. The plans are reviewed and approved by the Board.

C. Weather Modification (Cloud Seeding) -

The 1973 Weather Modification Act instructed the Division of Water Resources to authorize, sponsor and develop weather modification projects that conform to state water planning objectives. A project to augment naturally occurring snowpack in central and southern counties was started in 1975 in affiliation with the Water Resources Development Corporation. Each year approximately 15 northern, central and southern counties, involving city and county governments and water conservancy districts, participate in the program that costs an estimated $400,000. The division allocated $150,000 to this effort, but local county officials control the cloud seeding operation in their counties.

D. Administer State Funds to Investigate, Design and Construct Water Development and Conservation Projects - The Division and the Board of Water Resources administer the state’s Revolving Construction Fund, Cities Water Loan Fund, and Conservation and Development Fund that are available to and have been used by cities and towns, private irrigation companies, water conservancy or improvement districts and others to help pay for construction of dams and reservoirs, canals, wells, pipelines, sprinkler irrigation systems, and culinary and dual water systems. Since 1947, the state has invested more than $356 million in more than 1,100 costshare projects costing more than $708 million to construct. Projects are located in all of Utah’s 29 counties. To optimize the availability of funding for the overall water development and conservation program of the state, project sponsors are required to share in the cost of their projects and repay board funds.

E. Water Conservation and Education - The division develops and distributes water conservation and Education instructional materials to teachers and students in Utah’s public schools. A statewide Young Artists’ Water Education Poster Contest for grades kindergarten through sixth grade, started in 1984, is offered to more than 10,000 classrooms each year in conjunction with Water Education Month in October. The division also promotes Water Fairs that involve fourth and fifth grade students and is teamed with the National Project WET (Water Education for Teachers). To promote water conservation, the division supports the nonprofit Utah Water Conservation Forum, evaluates water conservation plans submitted by cities and districts, and works with local water agencies, citizens and professional groups to develop and implement water conservation programs. The division promotes modification of state and local laws, ordinances and regulations for efficient water use.

http://www.water.utah.gov/Mission/history.pdf

DISCLAIMER:

No Legal Advice Provided

The material in this research guide is intended to provide only general information and comment to the public. This research guide was created for educational purposes only. Although we have gone to great lengths to ensure that the information found in this libguide is accurate and timely, we cannot, and do not, guarantee that the information is either or may be used in a court of law. Nor do we guarantee the accuracy of any of the information contained on websites to which our libguides provides links to.

You may not, under any circumstances, rely on information found on our libguide as legal advice. Legal matters are often complicated and require specialized professional help. The law changes constantly and varies in each jurisdiction. This information is general in nature and the information and materials provided may not be specific enough to apply to any specific factual and/or legal set of circumstances. If you require assistance with your specific legal problem or question please contact a knowledgeable lawyer, who practices in the area you need and they will be able to determine whether he or she can assist you.

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The Division of Water Resources is one of seven agencies of the Utah Department of Natural Resources and is the water resources authority for the state of Utah. The Board is the policy-making body of the division.

Legislative Authority                                     

• Provide comprehensive water planning.
• Protect Utah's rights to interstate waters.
• Manage Utah's water resource project construction programs.

Mission                                     

• Plan, Conserve, Develop and Protect Utah's Water Resources

Goals                                     

• Defend and protect Utah's rights to develop and use its entitlement to interstate streams.
• Continue state water planning activities to identify futures water needs and to assist water entities to meet those needs
• Provide technical and financial assistance to encourage the highest beneficial uses of water consistent with economic, Social and environmental consideration.
• Promote weather modification research, evaluation and operational projects.
• Implement water education/conservation programs that encourage wise municipal, industrial, agricultural and environmental water use.
• Maintain accurate and current water supply and land use data for each hydrologic basin in the state.

http://www.water.utah.gov/

AND

The Utah Division of Water Rights (DWRi), led by the State Engineer - Kent L. Jones, P.E., is an agency of Utah State Government within the Department of Natural Resources that administers the appropriation and distribution of the State's valuable water resources.

http://www.waterrights.utah.gov/

The Law of the River

     The Colorado River is managed and operated under numerous compacts, federal laws, court decisions  and decrees, contracts, and regulatory guidelines collectively known as the "Law of the River."  This collection  of documents apportions the water and regulates the use and management of the Colorado River among the  seven basin states and Mexico.  Following is a synopsis of the most significant documents (you can click on the  highlighted titles to get the full text of these regulations in Adobe Acrobatpdf file formats):

• The Colorado River Compact of 1922- The cornerstone of the "Law of the River", this Compact was  negotiated by the seven Colorado River Basin states and the federal government in 1922.  It defined the  relationship between the upper basin states, where most of the river's water supply originates, and the lower  basin states, where most of the water demands were developing.  At the time, the upper basin states were  concerned that plans for Hoover Dam and other water development projects in the lower basin would, under  the Western water law doctrine of prior appropriation, deprive them of their ability to use the river's flows in  the future.

  The states could not agree on how the waters of the Colorado River Basin should be allocated among them,  so the Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover suggested the basin be divided into an upper and lower half,  with each basin having the right to develop and use 7.5 million acre-feet (maf) of river water annually.  This  approach reserved water for future upper basin development and allowed planning and development in the  lower basin to proceed.

• The Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928 - This act: (1) ratified the 1922 Compact; (2) authorized the  construction of  Hoover Dam and related irrigation facilities in the lower Basin; (3) apportioned the lower  basin's 7.5 maf among the states of Arizona (2.8 maf), California (4.4 maf) and Nevada (0.3 maf); and  (4) authorized and directed the Secretary of the Interior to function as the sole contracting authority for  Colorado River water use in the lower basin.
• California Seven Party Agreement of 1931 - This agreement helped settle the long-standing conflict between California agricultural and municipal interests over Colorado River water priorities. The seven principal claimants - Palo Verde Irrigation District, Yuma Project, Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District, and the City and County of San Diego - reached consensus in the amounts of water to be allocated on an annual basis to each entity. Although the agreement did not resolve all priority issues, these regulations were also incorporated in the major California water delivery contracts.
• The Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 - Committed 1.5 maf of the river's annual flow to Mexico.
• Upper Colorado River Basin Compact of 1948 - Created the Upper Colorado River Commission  and apportioned the Upper Basin's 7.5 maf among Colorado (51.75 percent), New Mexico (11.25 percent),  Utah (23 percent), and Wyoming (14 percent); the portion of Arizona that lies within the Upper Colorado  Basin was also apportioned 50,000 acre-feet annually.
• Colorado River Storage Project of 1956 - Provided a comprehensive Upper Basin-wide water resource development plan and authorized the construction of Glen Canyon, Flaming Gorge, Navajo and  Curecanti dams for river regulation and power production, as well as several projects for irrigation  and other uses.
• The Arizona v. California U.S. Supreme Court Decision of 1964- In 1963, the Supreme Court issued a  decision settling a 25-year-old dispute between Arizona and California.  The dispute stemmed from  Arizona's desire to build the Central Arizona Project so it could use its full Colorado River apportionment.   California objected and argued that Arizona's use of water from the Gila River, a Colorado River tributary,  constituted use of its Colorado River apportionment, and that it had developed a historical use of some  of Arizona's apportionment, which, under the doctrine of prior appropriation, precluded Arizona from  developing the project.

  The Supreme Court rejected California's arguments, ruling that lower basin states have a right to  appropriate and use tributary flows before the tributary co-mingles with the Colorado River, and that the  doctrine of prior appropriation did not apply to apportionments in the lower basin.

  In 1964, the Court issued its decree.  This decree enjoined the Secretary of the Interior from delivering  water outside the framework of apportionments defined by the law and mandated the preparation of annual reports documenting the uses of water in the three lower basin states.

  In 1979, the Supreme Court issued a Supplemental Decree which addressed present perfected rights  referred to in the Colorado River Compact and in the Boulder Canyon Project Act.  These rights are  entitlements essentially established under state law, and have priority over later contract entitlements.

• The Colorado River Basin Project Act of 1968 - This Act authorized construction of a number of water  development projects in both the upper and lower basins, including the Central Arizona Project (CAP).   It also made the priority of the CAP water supply subordinate to California's apportionment in times of  shortage, and directed the Secretary to prepare, in consultation with the Colorado River Basin states,  long-range operating criteria for the Colorado River reservoir system.
• The Criteria for Coordinated Long-Range Operation of Colorado River Reservoirs of 1970 (amended March 21, 2005) - Provided  for the coordinated operation of reservoirs in the upper and lower basins and set conditions for water  releases from Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
• Minute 242 of the U.S.-Mexico International Boundary and Water Commission of 1973 - Required the  U.S. to take actions to reduce the salinity of water being delivered to Mexico at Morelos Dam.
• The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act of 1974 - Authorized desalting and salinity control  projects, including the Yuma Desalting Plant, to improve Colorado River quality.

There are several other laws, contracts and document which are part of the "Law of the River" in addition to  these provisions, the federal Endangered Species Act and various Native American water claim settlements  both affect the extent to which water developments and diversions can be utilized in the Colorado River Basin.

http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g1000/lawofrvr.html