Opinion ID: 1170215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Rights to Return Flow From Imported Water

Text: The court found that each party which imported water and delivered it within the ULARA did so to meet existing water needs and did not do so for the purpose of (1) storing the water underground, (2) conveying it underground to diversion facilities or (3) recapturing any portion of it. It was also found that the return flow from the water imported and delivered by any particular party was commingled with the return flow from other delivered waters and became part of the conglomerate underground water supply of which no part can be traced to any particular source. An additional finding dealt with Owens water spread by plaintiff into spreading grounds in the San Fernando Basin continuously from 1931 to 1944 and sporadically thereafter until 1964-1965. It was found that such waters became part of the conglomerate water supply, that plaintiff had no means of separately extracting it and that there was no proof of an intent by plaintiff to recapture the water which it spread. [10]