WSP01337

• File Number: 8051
• Description: Area of Origin
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 10/1/1985
• Title: Addressing the Area of Origin Problem - A Research Report Prepared for the Colorado Water Resource Research Institute
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

DRAFT

diversion" if the water supply involved in such a plan or

project will be required to supply the reasonably foreseeable

future water requirements for the next ensuing fifty-year period

within the river basin of origin......25

In effect, this statute

creates a reservation of water needed in areas of origin for a

50-year per iod as against state sponsored or funded water
development.26

Oklahoma law contains the following provision:

In the granting of water rights for the
transportation of water for use outside the
stream system wherein water originates,
applicants within such stream system shall
have a right to all of the water required to
adequately supply the beneficial needs of
water users therein. The Board shall review
the needs within such area of origin every
five (5) years.27

Although the declared policy of the State is "to encourage the

use of surplus and excess water to the extent that the use

thereof is not required by people residing within the area where

such water originates,..28 a subsequent paragraph adds:

"Only

excess and surplus water should be utilized outside the areas of

25 Ch. 297, B2 1965 Tex. Gen. Laws 588, codified at
Tex. Water Code Ann. B16.052 (Vernon Supp. 1985).

26Johnson & Knippa, "Transbasin Diversion of Water," 43
Texas L. Rev. 1035, 1051 (1969): "Termed derisively by some as
the 'fifty-year lockup,' these provisions evidently are intended
to assure originating areas sufficient water to meet their
anticipated needs for a period of fifty years following the
planning of a transbasin project by the Water Development Board
or following . the decision to finance such a project with state
funds."

2782 0.5. Ig81 BI05.12 (4).
2882 0.5. 1981 BI086.1

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