Opinion ID: 1170215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Award of Mutually Prescriptive Rights

Text: The court found that its determination of mutually prescriptive rights and limitation of extractions of water will result in an equal sharing of burdens and promote the public interest and that a pro tanto limitation of water devoted to its present uses would be less disruptive than total elimination of some of the uses. The court expressly found and concluded that its award of mutually prescriptive rights is not barred by Civil Code section 1007 (relied on by plaintiff as immunizing cities from prescription). Additionally the court found that the ULARA valley fill is divided into four separate ground basins (corresponding to the subareas previously described) and made separate awards of prescriptive rights in the San Fernando, Sylmar, and Verdugo basins, respectively. The tiny Eagle Rock basin (0.6 percent of the valley fill) was excluded from the judgment, none of its water being claimed by any of the defendants before the court. As factual support for the separateness of the basins, the court found: The extractions of water in the respective basins affect the other water users within that basin but do not significantly or materially affect the ground water levels in any of the other basins. Rejecting plaintiff's contention that the ULARA contains a single basin, the court found: The mere existence of hydraulic continuity between ground water reservoirs does not cause them to become one basin or one ground water body. In the San Fernando basin, the court found that in each of the water years (Oct. 1 - Sept. 30) 1941-1942 through 1964-1965 there was a condition of overdraft in that the annual draft on the ground water of the basin exceeded the safe yield. Implicitly rejecting plaintiff's theory of a temporary surplus created by the desirability of lowering the ground water level to prevent waste from rising water outflow and other causes in wet years, the court found that plaintiff was capable of preventing rising water outflow waste from San Fernando basin by reasonable methods without the necessity of permanently removing ground water from storage in the basin. Having found the overdraft in the San Fernando basin beginning in 1941-1942, the court awarded mutually prescriptive rights consisting of the highest continuous annual production of water for beneficial use in any five (5) year period subsequent to the commencement of overdraft and prior to the filing of the complaint by each of the parties from the San Fernando Basin as to which there has been no cessation of use by it during any subsequent continuous five (5) year period. The court then reduced these mutually prescriptive rights proportionately insofar as necessary to limit the total extractions from the basin to its safe yield for 1964-1965, and enjoined future extractions in excess of these limited amounts, designated restricted pumping. The mutually prescriptive rights and restricted pumping rights thus adjudicated in the San Fernando basin in acre feet of water were as follows: Mutually Restricted prescriptive right pumping Los Angeles 82,310 63,257 [11] Glendale 16,141 12,405 Burbank 17,760 13,649 Private defendants 1,781 1,369 _______ ______ 117,992 90,680 In the Sylmar basin, the court found that there was overdraft from 1936-1937 through 1941-1942, 1944-1945 through 1953-1954, and 1959-1960 through 1964-1965, and that in the intervening years there was surplus, i.e., the draft was less than the safe yield. Based on the commencement of this overdraft, the court fixed mutually prescriptive rights in the Sylmar basin, applying the same formula as was used to fix such rights in the San Fernando basin. However, the court found that the Sylmar basin's safe yield for 1964-1965 exceeded the total of the mutually prescriptive rights, and provided for the restricted pumping, to which each party is limited in the judgment, by increasing the mutually prescriptive rights proportionately so as to aggregate the 1964-1965 safe yield. The respective rights fixed by the court in Sylmar basin, in acre feet, were as follows: Mutually Restricted prescriptive right pumping Los Angeles 2,440 2,818 San Fernando 2,370 2,737 [12] Two private defendants 567 655 _____ _____ 5,377 6,210 In the Verdugo basin, the court found that there was overdraft (annual extractions exceeded safe yield) from 1940-1941 through 1949-1950, and surplus (safe yield exceeded extractions) from 1950-1951 through 1964-1965. The court fixed mutually prescriptive rights under the formula applied to the San Fernando and Sylmar basins and, as with Sylmar, allotted restricted pumping rights by increasing the mutually prescriptive rights proportionately to the extent necessary to make their total equal to the 1964-1965 safe yield. The rights in the Verdugo basin, in acre feet, were fixed as follows: Mutually Restricted prescriptive right pumping Glendale 2,327 3,856 Crescenta Valley 1,988 3,294 _____ _____ 4,315 7,150 [13] A flexibility provision of the judgment provided that any party may exceed its restricted pumping right in any basin by up to 10 percent in any year with the excess to be offset by a reduction the following year. Conversely, any decrease below the restricted pumping right, not exceeding 10 percent, may be made up the following year.