Laserfiche WebLink
<br />,~ <br /> <br />water on non-riparian land, as for example for a municipal water supply, is <br /> <br /> <br />regarded as an unreasonable use. Thus in 1905 when New York City sought <br /> <br /> <br />to obtain water from the Catskill mountain area it had to condemn the <br /> <br /> <br />riparian rights of all riparians on the source rivers. Legislators from the <br /> <br /> <br />counties of origin were powerful enough to demand extensive protections <br /> <br /> <br />before enacting laws permitting the city to acquire water rights. Long <br /> <br /> <br />after he left office Mr. McClellan, the then Mayor of New York City, <br /> <br /> <br />recalled in public addresses the concessions he had had to make to permit <br /> <br /> <br />the city to flood the distant mountain valleys for its vital water supply. <br /> <br /> <br />Thus the city had to compensate the areas of origin for 'every conceivable <br /> <br /> <br />claim' that might reasonably arise from such projects. The city paid not <br /> <br /> <br />only for the value of the property, buildings and equipment taken, but also <br /> <br /> <br />for all business losses and loss of wages, both to riparians whose property <br /> <br /> <br />was actually taken, and to non-riparians in nearby areas who were adversely <br /> <br /> <br />affected by the project. <br /> <br />"It will be recalled that this type of indirect damage claim was not <br /> <br />provided for in the takeover by Los Angeles of Owens Valley water rights <br /> <br />and that this was one of the reasons the Valley residents opposed the <br /> <br />project so vigorously.n36 <br /> <br />The previous extensive quotation from Johnson omits his discussion of <br /> <br /> <br />Nebraska basin of origin protection statutes passed as early as 1889. <br /> <br /> <br />Basically, these statutes had once prohibited all out-of-basin water transfers, <br /> <br /> <br />then later allowed some transfers from certain size streams and still later <br /> <br /> <br />permitted certain transfers if the return flows were within the greater basin <br /> <br /> <br />of the Missouri River (which includes all of Nebraska as well as much of its <br /> <br />-28- <br />