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<br />0218 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />At the time these water laws developed, federal policy <br />stressed disposition of the public domain by encouraging <br />homesteading and settlement. By a series of acts in 1866, <br />1870, and 1877, Congress legitimized the appropriation <br />approach practiced in the western states and declared that <br />the water on public lands was open to use, and water rights <br />thereto were to be obtained under the laws of the states and <br />territories. 14/ It was settled that even government paten- <br />tees had only received land titles and had to acquire water <br />rights in accordance with state law. ~/ <br /> <br />However, by the end of the 19th Century, the emphasis <br />on settlement and development of western lands gave way in <br />part to a concern for conservation of natural resources, <br />resulting in a series of vast federal reservations of what <br />had previously been public lands. Thus, national monuments, <br />national parks, national forests, Indian reservations and <br />defense establishments \,rere withdrawn from those lands open <br />to public settlement. With respect to the water needs <br />associated with the programs on these lands, however, it was <br />customary for the federal government to appropriate water in <br />accordance with state laws. 16/ Indeed, western states' <br />Congressmen were repeatedly successful in securing disclaim- <br />ers in federal enactments of any effect or interference with <br />state laws concerning the control, appropriation, use, or <br />distribution of water, or any vested right acquired there- <br />under. ]2/ <br /> <br />The 1902 Reclamation Act contained such a disclaimer, <br />and furthermore in Section 8, directed the Secretary of <br />Interior, in carrying out the provisions of the Act, to <br />proceed in conformity with such state laws. 18/ Thus, <br />Congress directed that. the Bureau of Reclamation in develop- <br />ing water resources in the West respect the states' regu- <br />latory authority in securing unappropriated water in the <br />state for development of a particular project. <br /> <br />!if <br /> <br />15/ <br />16/ <br /> <br />17/ <br /> <br />~/ <br /> <br />California-Oregon POI-Jer Co, v. Beaver Portland Cement <br />Co" 295 U.S. 142 (1935). <br /> <br />Id. <br /> <br />C. Martz, The Role of the Government in State Water <br />Law, 5 Kan~ L. Rev. 626, 633 (1957). <br /> <br />E.g., Reclamation Act of 1902, Section 8, 43 U.S.C, <br />~~372, 383 (1970); Federal Power Act of 1920, Section <br />27,16 U.S.C. ~821 (1974). <br /> <br />43 U.S.C. ~383 (1970). <br /> <br />-4- <br />