Barber

present action was instituted to test the validity of an irrigation district in the Palo Verde Valley. The land of this district has long suffered from floods and inundation from the Colorado River and, for the purpose of securing levee protection, the Palo Verde Levee District of Riverside and Imperial Counties, California, was created in 1918 under the act of the legislature known as the Levee District Act of 1905 (Stats. 1905, p. 327). In 1921 an independent organization, known as the Palo Verde Drainage District, undertook the drainage projects in this valley. Distribution of water to lands under cultivation was under the control of the Palo Verde Mutual Water Company, a private corporation operated independently of the districts mentioned. For the purpose of eliminating the inefficiencies and extra expense occasioned by the functioning of the three above-mentioned separate and independent agencies, the legislature passed the Palo Verde Irrigation District Act (Stats, 1923, p. 1067), providing for the taking over of the Palo Verde mutual water system, the functions and properties of the levee district and of the drainage district, and the management and financing of all these…