WSPC05416

• File Number: 8064
• Description: Indian Water Rights
• State: CO
• Date: 5/1/1984
• Author: Western Governors As
• Title: Indian Water Rights in the West
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

(1) Their basis is publicly defined beneficial use:

(2) The

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By passage of the Mining Act in 1866 2/ and the Desert Land

Act in 1877 ~/ Congress approved past and future appropri-

at ions of water on public lands which had been made pursuant

to local laws and customs. This included the vast majority

of appropriations since most western land was in public

ownership at the time.

The Desert Land Act stated that all water on public

lands was "free for appropriation and use of the public for
irrigation, mining and manufacturing purposes." The Supreme
Court later recognized in California-Oregon Power Co., v.
Beaver Portland Cement Co.~/that this statute affected a

severance of the land and water estates in the public domain,

directing that rights to the land be established independently

of water rights. This decision affirmed the principle chat

water could be appropriated and property rights in it es-
tablished under traditional state practices and laws. Although

a few states provided for establishment of some riparian water

rights, the majority opted for the appropriation doctrine as
the controlling standard of water law. That .standard prevails.

The water rights created under the appropriation doctrine
are considered constitutionally protected property interests.

They are given a priority date by which they are integrated

into a hierarchy of rights controlled by the "first in time"
principle. The attributes of appropriative water rights are: