The development of public policies in water use in the West, with special emphasis on the Missouri Basin

386 Pages·021.884 MB·English

by  Douglas, Louis H

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THE DEVELOPMENT OP PUBLIC POLICIES IN WATER
USE IN THE WEST, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS
ON THE MISSOURI BASIN
by
LOUIS H. DOUGLAS
A THESIS
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate College
of the University of Nebraska
in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Political Science
Under the Supervision of v
Lincoln, Nebraska
August, 1950
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UMI Number: DP13734
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i i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION............ 1
THE FAR REACHING NATURE OF PROBLEMS OF WATER USE ... 1
IMPORTANCE IN THE REGION STUDIED .................. 3
DELIMITATION OF THE AREA STUDIED................. 7
THE NATURE AND METHOD OF THE PROBLEM.............. 14
CHAPTER II THE LEGAL BASIS OF WATER UTILIZATION IN THE
WEST ..................................... 23
LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY.............................. 23
WATER LAW IN THE WEST ......................... 25
WATER LAW IN NEBRASKA .............................. 36
NATIONAL WATER LAW ................................. 43
CHAPTER III SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS— THE SEED BED OF
PUBLIC POLICIES ......................... 58
GEOGRAPHIC BASIS OF WATER UTILISATION POLICIES ..... 58
CHIEF AGRICULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS AND TRENDS IN
THE MISSOURI BASIN .............................. 68
CONTINUING ECONOMIC TENSION ....................... 79
CHAPTER IV EARLY NATIONAL POLICY IN WATER UTILIZATION—
SEPARATISM.......................... 92
CHANGING POLICIES ACCOMPANY CHANGING USES ......... 92
RECLAMATION POLICIES AFTER 1900 ................... 101
PERTINENT FLOOD CONTROL POLICIES .................. 115
LACK OF INTEGRATION ................................ 118
NEW POLICY FORCE IN GROWTH OF HYDROPOWER .......... 122
PUBLIC PRODUCTION OF ELECTRICITY.................. 130
CHAPTER V STATE DEVELOPMENT— THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL
FORCES— NEBRASKA .......................... 135
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H i
DEVELOPMENTS IN NEBRASKA BEFORE 1953 .............. 135
PUBLIC POWER AND IRRIGATION DISTRICTS ............. 145
INTEGRATION AND COORDINATION ....... 165
SUMMARY OF NEBRASKA DEVELOPMENT ............. 183
CHAPTER VI RECENT NATIONAL POLICIES ................... 200
EMERGENCE OF CONTEMPORARY POLICIES ................ 200
LARGE SCALE PLANNING IN THE MISSOURI BASIN ........ 209
CHAPTER VII FEDERALIZATION ............................. 247
THE PROBLEM RESTATED ............................... 247
STATE CONTROL...................................... 248
THE MISSOURI BASIN INTER-AGENCY COMMITTEE ......... 258
MULTI-PURPOSE DISTRICTS AT THE STATE LEVEL ....... 269
THE SINGLE PURPOSE STATE AGENCY................... 277
WATER UTILIZATION POLICY AT THE STATE LEVEL....... 279
NATIONAL POLICY-MAKING AT THE LEGISLATIVE LEVEL .... 286
CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSIONS ............................... 291
NATURE OF PUBLIC POLICIES ...................... 295
THE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF PUBLIC POLICIES....... 302
COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM IN WATER UTILIZATION ....... 304
EMERGING DEVELOPMENTS .............................. 306
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................... 313
APPENDIX ............................ 332
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iv
TABLES
TABLE X STATES COMPRISING THE ARID AND SEMI-ARID
REGIONS OP THE UNITED STATES ........... 60
TABLE II VARIATIONS IN GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS IN THE
MISSOURI BASIN............... ........... 63
TABLE III DISTRIBUTION OP COUNTIES WITH OVER 25 PER
CENT OP FARMS HAVING GROSS INCOMES UNDER
|1500 PER YEAR IN THE MISSOURI BASIN 68
TABLE IV DISTRIBUTION AMONG AGENCIES OF PUBLICLY
OWNED LAND IN THE MISSOURI BASIN IN 1945
(IN THOUSANDS OP ACRES) ................. 69
TABLE V POPULATION CHANGES, 1940-1947, IN THE STATES
OP THE MISSOURI BASIN................ 70
TABLE VI CHANGES IN SIZE OP INDIVIDUAL HOLDINGS IN THE
MISSOURI BASIN, 1920-1940 ............... 71
TABLE VII RECENT GROWTH OF IRRIGATION IN THE SEVEN IR­
RIGATION STATES OP THE MISSOURI BASIN .... 73
TABLE VIII POPULATION OF NEBRASKA, PERCENTAGE INCREASE,
AND RURAL POPULATION, PERCENTAGE INCREASE
OR DECREASE .............................. 81
TABLE IX INVESTMENT IN IRRIGATION RECLAMATION
PROJECTS ................................. 115
TABLE X COMBINED INDICES OF DROUGHT INTENSITY
(1930-1936) .............................. 121
TABLE XI PUBLIC POWER, IRRIGATION, AND POWER AND IR­
RIGATION DISTRICTS IN NEBRASKA........... 149
TABLE XII NEBRASKA PUBLIC POWER SYSTEM GENERATING
FACILITIES ................................ 167
TABLE XIII SALS OP POWER TO RURAL PUBLIC POWER DISTRICTS
BY THE NEBRASKA PUBLIC POWER SYSTEM 178
TABLE XIV SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC WORKS CONSTRUCTION PROGRAMS.
FLOOD CONTROL, GENERAL, CORPS OF ENGINEERS,
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY.................. 230
TABLE XV DISTRIBUTION OF APPROPRIATIONS TO THE DEPART­
MENT OF INTERIOR, AMONG AGENCIES IN THE
MISSOURI BASIN, 1945-1949 ................ 233
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TABLE XVI THE CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM OP THE DEPARTMENT
OP INTERIOR IN THE MISSOURI BASIN TO
1949 .................................... 254
TABLE XVII SIX-YEAR PROGRAM FOR THE MISSOURI RIVER
BASIN ............................. 262
TABLE XVIII TYPICAL STATE AGENCIES AND THEIR PRINCIPAL
FUNCTIONS........ 278
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I. THE PAR REACHING NATURE OF PROBLEMS OF WATFR USE
The existence of a relationship between organized gov­
ernment and the utilization of water resources for what­
ever purposes deemed to be valuable is not unique either in
time or place. On the contrary, this relationship has ex­
isted throughout the history of civilization in one way or
another. Dependence on availability of this resource in
suitable quantity and quality has been a condition of human
life which governments have recognized and have frequently
sought to control. Among the earliest records of civili­
zation, as long ago as the fourth or fifth millenium before
Christ, are those of complex laws of water rights and of
proceedings in Egyptian and Babylonian courts to adjust
problems of water use.^-
Elaborate laws and administrative arrangements accom­
panied elaborate techniques providing for water utilization
among ancient civilizations. These techniques included the
water-wheel, stone channels, dykes, embankments, and bar­
riers. Public works in the Ganges and Damodar deltas were
constructed for basin irrigation more than three thousand
years ago and the project of diking the Min River in China
^ E. H. Currier, The Thirsty Earth. Christophers, London,
1928, page 45.
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was completed before the Christian era, during the rule of
LI-Ping.2
The ancient civilization of the Incas of Peru devel­
oped intricate laws for the utilization of water resources
and constructed water works consisting of stone cisterns,
canals, and aqueducts, in one instance a subterranean
2
aqueduct four hundred or more miles in length. Elwood
Mead states that ’’irrigation on the American continent is
older than historical records. In many parts of the south­
west, notably in the Salt River valley of Arizona, in north­
ern Hew Mexico, and in southern Colorado, are well-defined
remains of irrigation works which have outlived by many cen­
turies the civilization to which they belonged.”^
Water use policies are a continuing concern of govern­
ments. The growth of complex states, with accent on
urbanization and technology, is likely to intensify the
problem and to associate it more closely with the public wel­
fare than is the case In a less complex society, "'hat from
one point of vie?; may appear as one of the most readily
available and elemental of human necessities may come to in­
volve difficult and complex problems of government, on the
solution of which the very survival of the state and the
culture of its people may depend.
The existing water situation in the Central Valley of
2
See the article by E. H. Currier In the Encyclopaedia of
the Social Sciences, Vol. VIII, pages 329-331.
E. H* Currier, op. cit., page 61.
^ Irrigation Institutions. The Macmillan Company, 1910,
.
page 41
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