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regarded as within the exclusive jurisdiction of the State s. One example, a very dramatic one, was the famous tidelands episode of a decade ago, when the Department of Justice of the United States asserted, and the Supreme Court of the United States agreed - though later reversed by the Congress - that the Federal Government, rather than the States, had "paramount rights" in the three-mile strip of water and the underlying soil along the coasts of our seaboard States. Another and more recent example is the so-called "Pelton Dam" case wherein the Department of Justice asserted, and again the Supreme Court of the United States agreed, that a licensee of the Federal Power Commission could build and operate a power project on Federal lands within the State of Oregon without observing the requirements of Oregon law. 4 The clear implications of this important decision of the United States Supreme Court were of very great concern to everyone in the West who is familiar with water development problems. It appeared from this decision that the United States as a property owner was to be "above the law" and not required to observe the laws and regulations of the States with regard to the use of water within their borders. Furthermore, it appeared that not only the agencies of the Federal Government but also their licen- sees, such as the power company which obtained the license for the Pelton Dam from the Federal Power Commission, would also be exempt from State regulation. By this one decision it appeared that the Supreme Court of the United States had greatly expanded the authority of the Federal Power Commission and other Federal agencies and had greatly reduced the effec- tiveness and value of local regulation of water resource development by the several States. The Pelton Dam decision is only three years old, having been announced in 1955, but the fears which it engendered have already been justified. In a very recent ruling by the United States District Court in the State of Nevada, the Pelton Dam doctrine was applied to exempt the United States Navy from complying with Nevada laws regulating the appro- priation and use of underground waters. I refer to the well-known Haw- thorne case in which a decision was announced on August 27th of this year. The importance of this ruling to the State of Nevada and to all other Western States cannot possibly be over-emphasized. Like many of the Western States, the State of Nevada depends for its water resources to a very large extent upon the conservation and careful use of its under- ground water supplies. In order to utilize those underground waters to the best possible advantage the State of Nevada has established, as have many other States, laws and regulations controlling the drilling and opera- tion of wells so that the underground water reservoirs shall be carefully ~ ~ 22 -