Appreciating 125 Years of Federal and State Water Law
By Klodette Stroh
Celebrating Thanksgiving always reminds me of God’s love and blessings.
Farmers like me thank Him for his partnership to help us produce food and fiber for His people.
History of western water rights
As young America was being established, the Founding Fathers’ priority was to settle the West via the farming and ranching industries, which would enhance exporting goods to other countries.
In 1790, the value of tobacco exports was $4.36 million and in 1809, the average annual value of agriculture exports was $23 million. Agricultural exports were as high as $574 million per year in 1880-90.
Settling the West with the farming and ranching industries meant developing a viable irrigation system because water is the most precious natural resource in the U.S. Without water there would be no row crops in western states, thus, settlement impossible.
Before the 1900s, the U.S. Congress had already invested heavily in America’s infrastructure. Roads, river navigation, canals and railroads received major subsidies. The government was trying to settle the West by subsidization.
In 1866, Congress passed an act granting the right-of-way to ditch and canal owners over public lands. In 1877, the Desert Land Act was passed, and the Carey Act was passed in 1894, which were both intended to encourage irrigation projects in the West.
Early settlers diverted water from nearby streams and rivers, but demand quickly exceeded supply. There was fertile land in the West, but the problem was to get water to the land in order to grow food to be able to support a family.
In order to fulfill the goal of settling the western states, the federal government conducted a study with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
John Wesley Powell traveled to Colorado, Wyoming and others states to explore. Incidentally our little town is named after him.
Powell wrote his western exploration report and presented it to the U.S. Congress. His report called to start water development in western states. The reclamation concept was irrigation would reclaim arid lands for farmers growing crops and settling the West.
Shortly after the Civil War, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Joseph Carey to the U.S. District Attorney Office of Wyoming. Later, he served as a delegate to Congress for the Wyoming Territory.
During his term in Congress, Carey authored the bill to admit Wyoming to statehood. He was rewarded when the people of Wyoming elected him as the first U.S. senator on Nov. 12, 1890. He worked diligently and convinced members of the U.S. Congress to give rights to settlers to convert water from rivers to sustain their livelihood.
Wyoming became the first state in the union to claim state ownership of water rights.
This event happened at the time the state constitution was ratified in 1890.
The Carey Act of 1894 gave each public lands state – including 14 western states and three territories – one million acres on which they could encourage irrigation and settlement.
One of the Carey projects in our area was built by William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and his partner Nate Salsbury who filed a water rights permit in 1899 to develop 120,000 acres of the Shoshone Valley, 50 miles east of Cody.
The Shoshone
Irrigation Project
Later on, this permit was transferred to farmers of the Shoshone Irrigation Project (SIP).
President Theodore Roosevelt supported the Reclamation Act of 1902 and signed it on June 17, 1902, authorizing construction of irrigation projects in western states. Congress also approved and appropriated a $50 million loan to 14 western states to build irrigation projects such as dams and irrigation canals with the stipulation the users of the water on the projects would pay the loan back.
SIP’s water was first delivered to homesteaders in the Garland Division on April of 1908, prior to the completion of the Shoshone Dam. As a result, $2,250,000 was set aside to build the Shoshone Dam, renamed the Buffalo Bill Dam in 1946.
The Buffalo Bill Dam and its four districts – including the Garland District, the Frannie District, the Willwood District and Heart Mountain Irrigation – are known as the SIP.
In 1991, these four districts qualified for a Rehabilitation and Betterment (R&B) loan to upgrade the aging structures. The Small Reclamation Project Act (SRPA) was authorized in 1956.
The sole purpose of SRPA was to assist farmers in the area. Federal funds were made available to repair, replace or make improvements to the project’s structures and systems.
SIP qualified for $7.5 million by the R&B program. The Wyoming Water Commission awarded SIP a $7.5 million grant to match the loan.
In 1991, R&B started project restoration with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Wyoming Water Commission Program, and it was completed in 2000-01, totaling $15 million.
SIP has a 40-year repayment obligation to our government. The annual repayment of the four districts towards the R&B loan is due on Jan. 1 of each year.
The important concept to understand is laws in the Reclamation Act of 1902 are operated under state water laws. This means the federal government cannot override the state water laws.
Preparation of assessment roll is the duty of the commissioners of each district to repay the original project construction or operation and maintenance of the irrigation district which is paid back by water righted land assessment.
The assessment roll shall show the amount assessed against each lot, tract and easement of land and against each indebtedness of district for the current year. All such assessments for current expenses shall be based upon irrigatable acreage.
Further subdivision of an original farm unit creates additional farm ownership if the ownership of the subdivided portion has changed.
Looking for hidden pictures
The arid lands of Wyoming have become productive and have flourished. Wyoming people put the water to beneficial uses such as in agriculture, municipality, industry and recreation.
The largest irrigation project in Wyoming is in Park County. Farmers such as my husband and I depend on water and the Wyoming state water laws to protect our farming rights.
The towns of Cody, Powell, Deaver and Lovell all depend on the availability of water.
The output of the agricultural sector in Wyoming exceeds $2.45 billion annually with Park County ranking first in barley and sugarbeet production, second in dry bean production and fifth in corn.
Nationally, Wyoming ranks in the top 10 for pinto beans, barley, all dry beans and sugarbeet production, which is quite impressive.
I would like to conclude my brief recollection of the history of our beloved town and state by sharing a story my mother told me:
People in a small European town blessed themselves passing a certain town wall. They couldn’t give any explanation why they did this, other than a tradition passed down by their elders.
One day, town workers were cleaning the wall, and as they scraped, they found a mural of Mary and the child Jesus. This explained the reason for reverence and homage to the town wall.
As we scrape the pages of history and look for the hidden picture behind green fields of crops we are blessed with today, we understand the wisdom of western water laws written by Elwood Mead and the 1902 Act of Congress, and we can appreciate the benefits of water and agricultural promotion in western states.
Klodette Stroh is the sugar chairman for Women Involved in Farm Economics. She can be reached at strohfarms@tritel.net.
