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<br />002781 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />We started off by eliminating the 70 water districts in the <br /> <br />state. We felt that these were truly reminiscent of the horse <br /> <br />and buggy days, and that their superiors, the division engineers, <br /> <br />should be given sufficient man power to do the jOb, and also given <br /> <br />the power to assign the water commissioners wherever they were <br /> <br />needed. We hoped, by this device, to enable the water commis- <br /> <br />sioner's job to be a year round one, so that more capable ones <br /> <br />could be attracted to the work, and so that it would no longer be <br /> <br />necessary to hire one of the water users on a part-time basis to <br /> <br />police his own water right. The other water users appear to object <br /> <br />to this practice. <br /> <br />We left the water divisions the same, except for dividing <br /> <br />the Eastern Slope into three divisions instead of the previous two, <br /> <br />as we felt that with the water officials administering ground as <br /> <br />well as surface water, the absence of any substantial amount of <br /> <br />surface water in the new division 2 would not be missed. <br /> <br />Then we decided that instead of each of the sixty-odd dis- <br /> <br />trict judges ("odd" may be an unfortunate choice of word), each <br /> <br />taking a whack at making water law, we would provide for one water <br /> <br />court in each division, with one judge permanently assigned to <br /> <br />handle all water matters. In this way we hoped to have, in the <br /> <br />course of time, a group of seven water judges who would be experts, <br /> <br />thus tending toward a more uniform and scientific interpretation of <br /> <br />the water laws. <br /> <br />6 <br />