Field v. Oklahoma Water Resources Board

The vice of majority in today’s opinion is that it weakens the fundamental basis or concept of prior appropriation by a beneficial user. The majority substitutes a jungle or maze of technicalities and procedural pitfalls for a simple rule of prior appropriation.

In Bowles v. City of Enid, 206 Okl. 611, 245 P.2d 730, 732 (1957), this Court properly observed the basis for the rule of prior appropriation:

“It must be assumed our adoption of the reasonable use therein (appropriation for a beneficial use), as applied to under ground waters was based upon the peculiar physical conditions of our…