Conveyance to Fallon, Nev., of lands for use as dumping ground_ Compact between States of Idaho and Wyoming regarding waters of Snake Special provisions of Second Deficiency Act, fiscal year 1933.. Compensation to Hatch flood sufferers regardless of citizenship. Special provisions Post Office Department Appropriation Act for 1935. Special provisions Agricultural Department Appropriation Act for 1935. Amendment to Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of 1933 permitting irriga- tion districts to make loans from Reconstruction Finance Corporation.. Amending act of May 25, 1926, with respect to Langell Valley irrigation Special provisions of Interior Department Appropriation Act for 1936- Special provisions of Treasury and Post Office Departments Appropriation Special provisions of Legislative Branch Appropriation Act for 1936- Special provision of Second Deficiency Act for 1935, Boulder Dam ap- CONFIRMATION OF WESTERN WATER RIGHTS Sec. 2339, R. S. [Vested rights to use of water-Right of way for canals-Liability for injury.]-Whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged and confirmed; but whenever any person in the construction of any ditch or canal injures or damages the possession of any settler on the public domain the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage. Textual note.--This section and section 2340, Revised Statutes, quoted below, are con solidated and codified as section 661, title 43, United States Code. NOTES The foregoing section of the United States Revised Statutes is taken from "An act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over public lands, and for other purposes," approved July 26, 1866 (ch. 262, 14 Stat. 251). The very large number of decisions under this and the following section regarding the doctrine of prior appropriation of the use of public water, not being directly connected with the general operations of the Bureau of Reclamation, references thereto are omitted for the sake of brevity. Sec. 2340, R. S. [Patents, preemptions, and homesteads subject to vested and accrued water rights.]-All patents granted or preemptions or homesteads allowed shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights, as may have been acquired under or recognized by the preceding section. Textual note.-This section and section 2339, Revised Statutes, quoted above, are consolidated and codified as section 661, title 43, United States Code. NOTES The foregoing section of the United States Revised Statutes is taken from "An act to amend 'An act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes,' approved July 9, 1870 (ch. 235 16 Stat. 217). IRRIGATION SURVEYS OF THE ARID REGION [Extract from] An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, and for other purposes. (Act October 2, 1888, ch. 1069, 25 Stat. 505) [Irrigation survey of arid region-Report of expenses-Withdrawal of lands Opening of lands by proclamation.]-[There is appropriated] For the purpose of investigating the extent to which the arid region of the United States can be redeemed by irrigation, and the segregation of the irrigable lands in such arid region, and for the selection of sites for reservoirs and other hydraulic works necessary for the storage and utilization of water for irrigation and the prevention of floods and overflows, and to make the necessary maps, including the pay of employees in field and in office, the cost of all instruments, apparatus, and materials, and all other necessary expenses connected therewith, the work to be performed by the Geological Survey, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, the sum of $100,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary. And the Director of the Geological Survey under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior shall make a report to Congress on the first Monday in December of each year, showing in detail how the said money has been expended, the amount used for actual survey and engineer work in the field in locating sites for reservoirs and an itemized account of the expenditures under this appropriation. And all the lands which may hereafter be designated or selected by such United States surveys for sites for reservoirs, ditches, or canals for irrigation purposes and all the lands made susceptible of irrigation by such reservoirs, ditches, or canals are from this time henceforth hereby reserved from sale as the property of the United States, and shall not be subject after the passage of this act, to entry, settlement, or occupation until further provided by law: Provided, That the President may at any time in his discretion by proclamation open any portion or all of the lands reserved by this provision to settlement under the homestead laws. (25 Stat. 526.) Textual note. See textual note relative to provision first quoted of act of August 30, 1890 (26 Stat. 371, 391), page 3. NOTES Effect of act.-The provision reserving from sale or entry lands designated or selected for reservoirs, ditches, or canals for irrigation purposes, and also lands made susceptible of irrigation by such reservoirs, ditches, or canals, operates as an immediate withdrawal of the lands thus described from entry and settlement. (19 Op. Atty. Gen. 564, May 24, 1890.) This act construed in connection with act of August 30, 1890 (26 Stat. 371, 391), in Green v. Wilhite et al. (C. C. Ida. 1906, 160 Fed. 775.) Repeal. A portion of this act was repealed by the act of August 30, 1890. (Ch. 837, 26 Stat. 371.) See debate in Congress on question of repeal. (Cong. Rec. vol. 21, pp. 7269-7987; 8270-9156.) RESTORATION OF WITHDRAWN LANDS-RESERVATION FOR DITCHES [Extract from] An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, and for other purposes. (Act August 30, 1890, ch. 837, 26 Stat. 371) * [Restoration of irrigable lands-Existing bona fide entries validatedReservoir sites to be reserved.]—* so much of the act of October second, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, entitled "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and for other purposes," as provides for the withdrawal of the public lands from entry, occupation, and settlement, is hereby repealed, and all entries made or claims initiated in good faith and valid but for said act, shall be recognized and may be perfected in the same manner as if said law had not been enacted except that reservoir sites heretofore located or selected shall remain segregated and reserved from entry or settlement as provided by said act, until otherwise provided by law, and reservoir sites hereafter located or selected on public lands shall in like manner be reserved from the date of the location or selection thereof. (26 Stat. 391.) Textual note.-A portion of this provision combined with a part of the provision of the act of October 2, 1888 (25 Stat. 505, 526), shown at page 2, is codified as section 662, title 43, United States Code. * [Land patents to reserve right of way for Government ditches.]That in all patents for lands hereafter taken up under any of the land laws of the United States or on entries or claims validated by this act, west of the one hundredth meridian, it shall be expressed that there is reserved from the lands in said patent described a right of way thereon for ditches or canals constructed by the authority of the United States. (26 Stat. 391.) Textual note.-This provision is codified as section 945, title 43, United States Code. NOTES Purpose of the act.-By a series of acts and resolutions passed by Congress beginning as early as 1888 (act October 2, 1888, c. 1069, 25 Stat. 526; act March 20, 1888, 25 Stat. 618; act March 2, 1889, c. 411, 25 Stat. 960; act August 30, 1890, c. 837, 26 Stat. 391), the Government unmistakably declared a purpose to reclaim its arid lands by conducting water to and across them, and provision was shortly made to enable it to carry out that purpose. (United States v. Van Horn et al. (D. C. Colo., 1912), 197 Fed. 611). This provision must be construed in the line of the known purpose of the Government to reclaim its arid lands by conducting water upon them, and it is not void for indefiniteness because the right of way reserved is not specifically described, but is within the undoubted powers of Congress and valid. (Idem.) |