Opinion ID: 1170215
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Commencement of Overdraft

Text: (17) A ground basin is in a state of surplus when the amount of water being extracted from it is less than the maximum that could be withdrawn without adverse effects on the basin's long term supply. While this state of surplus exists, none of the extractions from the basin for beneficial use constitutes such an invasion of any water right as will entitle the owner of the right to injunctive, as distinct from declaratory, relief. ( City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra, supra, 33 Cal.2d at pp. 926-927; City of L.A. v. City of Glendale, supra, 23 Cal.2d at p. 79.) Overdraft commences whenever extractions increase, or the withdrawable maximum decreases, or both, to the point where the surplus ends. Thus on the commencement of overdraft there is no surplus available for the acquisition or enlargement of appropriative rights. Instead, appropriations of water in excess of surplus then invade senior basin rights, creating the element of adversity against those rights prerequisite to their owners' becoming entitled to an injunction and thus to the running of any prescriptive period against them. ( City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra, supra, 33 Cal.2d at pp. 928-929.) We need not consider here the nature or extent of any appropriative or prescriptive water rights in the San Fernando or Verdugo basins in view of our conclusions with respect to the pueblo right, rights to return flow from imported water and the exemption of municipal water rights from prescription. However, the principles governing appropriative and prescriptive water rights will be relevant to the determination on remand of the conflicting interests of the parties in the water of the Sylmar basin. Hence we deal with these principles for the guidance of the trial court. (18) The trial court defined surplus and overdraft in terms of safe yield. The findings state that [s]urplus is that condition which exists when the draft on the ground water supply is less than the safe yield, and that overdraft exists when such draft exceeds the safe yield. Safe yield is defined as the maximum quantity of water which can be withdrawn annually from a ground water supply under a given set of conditions without causing an undesirable result. The phrase undesirable result is understood to refer to a gradual lowering of the ground water levels resulting eventually in depletion of the supply. ( City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra, supra, 33 Cal.2d at p. 929.) Although the parties differ sharply over the correct meanings of surplus and overdraft under the present facts, they are in accord over the concept of safe yield and the essential correctness of the method by which the referee and the expert witnesses computed the safe yield of the ULARA and its component basins for particular years. Basically, safe yield was deemed equivalent to an adjusted figure for net ground water recharge, consisting of (A) recharge from (1) native precipitation and associated runoff, (2) return flow from delivered imported water, and (3) return flow from delivered ground water less (B) losses incurred through natural ground water depletions consisting of (1) subsurface outflow, (2) excessive evaporative losses in high ground water areas and through vegetation along streams, (3) ground water infiltration into sewers, and (4) rising water outflow, or water emerging from the ground and flowing past Gauging Station No. F57 down the river channel to the sea. [80] The component figures for the particular safe yield year being determined were adjusted to eliminate the effect of fluctuations extraneous to the long range calculation. The adjustment of chief importance here was the use of a 29-year base period, consisting of the water years 1928-1929 through 1956-1957, for the computation of all items dependent upon precipitation. This 29-year period was selected as one for which (1) adequate hydrological data was available and (2) precipitation figures were representative, in both average level and fluctuations, of the 85 years for which weather records were relatively complete. Plaintiff contends that the trial court's definition of overdraft as a condition in which draft exceeds safe yield, although consistent with the Pasadena decision, is insufficient for the facts of the present case. According to plaintiff, overdraft commenced in the ULARA only when (1) total extractions exceeded safe yield and (2) the available water storage capacity of the basin was sufficient to permit cycling of the safe yield throughout the 29-year base period of wet and dry years without causing a waste of water in the wet years. The referee's report as well as other evidence showed that when ground basin levels were relatively high, and storage space correspondingly diminished, waste occurred. [81] Ground basin levels tended to vary in accordance with wide fluctuations in precipitation. [82] Thus if a rising level of extractions were halted at the point of the safe yield based on the 29-year average, ensuing heightening of ground water levels during years of higher-than-average precipitation would cause waste. [83] Since this waste would constitute a loss of basin water in addition to the safe yield extractions, it would eventually create enough additional storage space to stop further similar waste, but the wasted water itself would be lost to any beneficial use. On the other hand, a withdrawal of water from the basin over and above its safe yield in the amount necessary to create the storage space sufficient to prevent the waste would result in a net addition to the beneficially used supply. [84] We agree with plaintiff that if a ground basin's lack of storage space will cause a limitation of extractions to safe yield to result in a probable waste of water, the amount of water which if withdrawn would create the storage space necessary to avoid the waste and not adversely affect the basin's safe yield is a temporary surplus available for appropriation to beneficial use. Accordingly, overdraft occurs only if extractions from the basin exceed its safe yield plus any such temporary surplus. Defendants contend that the Pasadena decision required the trial court to make its findings equating overdraft with an excess of extractions over safe yield, relying on the following language: Each taking of water in excess of the safe yield ... was wrongful and was an injury to the then existing owners of water rights, because the overdraft, from its very beginning, operated progressively to reduce the total available supply. ( City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra, supra, 33 Cal.2d at p. 929.) This statement must be read in light of the facts of that case. Prior to the filing of the complaint in September 1937 (33 Cal.2d at p. 916), extractions from the basin had exceeded safe yield for every water year since 1913-1914 except 1934-1935 and 1936-1937 (33 Cal.2d at p. 922), and there appears no suggestion of any temporary surplus caused by lack of ground basin storage space during any of the years relied upon as part of a prescriptive period. On the contrary, the court expressly noted that the ground water storage capacity is adequate to store the excess during wet years for the following dry years. (33 Cal.2d at p. 921.) [85] Moreover, the Pasadena decision clearly recognizes the reason that such temporary surplus prevents the commencement of overdraft. The court treated as overdraft only a taking in excess of safe yield that from its very beginning, operated progressively to reduce the total available supply. (33 Cal.2d at p. 929.) A taking of the kind of temporary surplus we are considering here does not reduce but increases the total available supply by eliminating waste emanating from insufficient storage space. As stated in Pasadena: It is the policy of the state to foster the beneficial use of water and discourage waste, and when there is a surplus, whether of surface or ground water, the holder of prior rights may not enjoin its appropriation. ( Peabody v. City of Vallejo, 2 Cal.2d 351, 368-369, 372 [40 P.2d 486]; see 26 Cal.Jur. 277.) (33 Cal.2d at p. 926.) [86] Defendants contend that the temporary surplus does not preclude the commencement of overdraft if the waste resulting from the lack of storage space could have been prevented by reasonable measures other than permanent removal of ground water from basin storage. However, the availability of such measures [87] is not necessarily inconsistent with the existence of a temporary surplus in the basin arising from lack of sufficient ground water storage space. There is no showing in the findings or otherwise that the methods by which plaintiff or any other party extracted, diverted, or spread water exceeded the bounds of reasonable beneficial use. Accordingly, the parties' water rights cannot be varied by any showing that they could have applied any different methods. ( Allen v. California Water & Tel. Co. (1946) 29 Cal.2d 466, 483-484 [176 P.2d 8]; Tulare Dist. v. Lindsay-Strathmore Dist., supra, 3 Cal.2d 489, 547; Joerger v. Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. (1929) 207 Cal. 8, 23 [276 P. 1017].) Moreover, if a temporary surplus in fact existed, it would be anomalous to permit a party suing for an injunction to establish merely that he is capable of preventing this surplus in lieu of proving the actual overdraft prerequisite to injunctive relief.