BOARD01026

• Board Meeting Date: 5/16/2006
• Description: History of Reservoirs in the San Luis Valley - Presentation by Melvin Getz
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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First, eome method of determining prior rights had to be devised. Second,
if' prior rights were to be meaningful some reaeonably axsct principle
for the measurement of water had to be disoOvered. Finally a system of
etream-flow administration which 'would authorize and ccntrol divereions
was needed, if that prior right was to be completelY realized.

The convention met in Denver December 5-7, 1878. About fifty-one
irrigators ware in attendance--all from ~he South Platte or its '
tributariee. A few came to oppose any legislative program. L. C. Mead
was again eleoted chairman. David Boyd of Greeley was appointed chair-
man of the committee on order of business. Three ,proposals were brought
before the oonvention by the committea. ' The proposal to divide the State
into distriote for the adminietr,ation met vigorous opposition. G. 1!!.
Harriman of Bear Creek was reported to have said, "If the people of the
Cache La Foudre want legielation let them have a district law and pay for
it ,themselves." When the question of water measurement was under
discuesion J. Max Clark of. Greeley supported the proposal by a referencs
to the successful meaeurement of streams in Italy. However, there wae
a good deal of skepticism about the feasiblli ty of meaeurement of water,
even among the friends of a legislative program. One man, David Barnes
of the Big Thompson, suggestsd that it would be ,more feaeible to maasure
the snow' in the mountaina. ' The conventiol) ended with the chair being
authorized to appoint a 'committee to draft a bill for an irrigation law
to be submitted to the legislature. The 'committee was composed of David
Boyd .of Greeley, Chairman; J. S. Stange, editor of The Colorado Farmer;
Daniel Witter of Boulder, John C. Abbott of Fort Comne, and I. L. Bond
of Boulder., '

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The program this committ.ee recommended to the legislature provided
,firslf, for ,dividing the Sta,te into water districts corresponding with
the natural drainage b/leins; second, the appointment by the Goverrior of'
a water commissioner in each dietriot whose duty it would ba to divide
the water on the basie of prior appropriations; third" a plan for,
securing a reoord of prioritiee through referees' hearings in each
distriot. 'The latter was the moet contentiously discussed problem.
Dr. Bond wanted water rights besed not on diversion but on application
to the land. Each parcel of land thus, would have tha water rights
permanantly attached to it. Finally, the program provided for the
appointment of a etate ,enginser,' ,.

The bill was plaoed in tha hands of L. C. Mead who introduced the
measure. It was rewritten in committee ,by Judge H. P. H. Bron:well,
one of the few lawyers who were sympathetic with the idea of state
adminietration. The bill faoed ,determined opposition in the legislature.
Three times L. R. Rhoads of Fort Collins, who later became one of the
leading irrigation attorneys of the State, attempted to kill the bill.
However, on February 9, 1879, the' bill became law. The aot oreated ten
,water districts, all but one in the Flatte ,River system, and provided
for the appointment of ten water commissioners. It empowered the Dietrict
courts to appoint rafarees to datermine ths'prior1ty of rights on each
stream. The legislature refused to provide for a State engineer or for
gauging stations. To economize, the supervision over irrigation was
given 'to the state Board of Agrioulture.

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