California Water Code

§ 5901

WAT § 5901Div. 2 · Part 6

Statute text

The provisions of said Klamath River Basin Compact are as follows: Article I. Purposes The major purposes of this compact are, with respect to the water resources of the Klamath River Basin: A. To facilitate and promote the orderly, integrated and comprehensive development, use, conservation and control thereof for various purposes, including, among others: the use of water for domestic purposes; the development of lands by irrigation and other means; the protection and enhancement of fish, wildlife and recreational resources; the use of water for industrial purposes and hydroelectric power production; and the use and control of water for navigation and flood prevention. B. To further intergovernmental co-operation and comity with respect to these resources and programs for their use and development and to remove causes of present and future controversies by providing (1) for equitable distribution and use of water among the two states and the Federal Government, (2) for preferential rights to the use of water after the effective date of this compact for the anticipated ultimate requirements for domestic and irrigation purposes in the Upper Klamath River Basin in Oregon and California, and (3) for prescribed relationships between beneficial uses of water as a practicable means of accomplishing such distribution and use. Article II. Definition of Terms As used in this compact: A. “Klamath River Basin” shall mean the drainage area of the Klamath River and all its tributaries within the States of California and Oregon and all closed basins included in the Upper Klamath River Basin. B. “Upper Klamath River Basin” shall mean the drainage area of the Klamath River and all its tributaries upstream from the boundary between the States of California and Oregon and the closed basins of Butte Valley, Red Rock Valley, Lost River Valley, Swan Lake Valley and Crater Lake, as delineated on the official map of the Upper Klamath River Basin approved on September 6, 1956, by the commissions negotiating this compact and filed with the Secretaries of State of the two states and the General Services Administration of the United States, which map is incorporated by reference and made a part hereof. C. “Commission” shall mean the Klamath River Compact Commission as created by Article IX of this compact. D. “Klamath Project” of the Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior of the United States shall mean that area as delineated by appropriate legend on the official map incorporated by reference under subdivision B of this article. E. “Person” shall mean any individual or any other entity, public or private, including either state, but excluding the United States. F. “Keno” shall mean a point on the Klamath River at the present needle dam, or any substitute control dam constructed in Section 36, Township 39 South, Range 7 East, Willamette Base and Meridian. G. “Water” or “waters” shall mean waters appearing on the surface of the ground in streams, lakes or otherwise, regardless of whether such waters at any time were or will become ground water, but shall not include water extracted from underground sources until after such water is used and becomes surface return flow or waste water. H. “Domestic use” shall mean the use of water for human sustenance, sanitation and comfort; for municipal purposes; for livestock watering; for irrigation of family gardens; and for other like purposes. I. “Industrial use” shall mean the use of water in manufacturing operations. J. “Irrigation use” shall mean the use of water for production of agricultural crops, including grain grown for feeding wildfowl. Article III. Distribution and Use of Water A. There are hereby recognized vested rights to the use of waters originating in the Upper Klamath River Basin validly established and subsisting as of the effective date of this compact under the laws of the state in which the use or diversion is made, including rights to the use of waters for domestic and irrigation uses within the Klamath Project. There are also hereby recognized rights to the use of all waters reasonably required for domestic and irrigation uses which may hereafter be made within the Klamath Project. B. Subject to the rights described in subdivision A of this article and excepting the uses of water set forth in subdivision E of Article XI, rights to the use of unappropriated waters originating within the Upper Klamath River Basin for any beneficial use in the Upper Klamath River Basin, by direct diversion or by storage for later use, may be acquired by any person after the effective date of this compact by appropriation under the laws of the state where the use is to be made, as modified by the following provisions of this subdivision B and subdivision C of this article, and may not be acquired in any other way: 1. In granting permits to appropriate waters under this subdivision B, as among conflicting applications to appropriate when there is insufficient water to satisfy all such applications, each state shall give preference to applications for a higher use over applications for a lower use in accordance with the following order of uses:

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Legislative history

Added by Stats. 1959, Ch. 586.