Court Opinion

ID: 9864725
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 15:49:13.74177+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:33:24.710584
License: Public Domain

THE COURT.
Rehearing denied. Defendants and certain amici curiae in support of their petitions for a rehearing have asserted that the allowance of two and one-half miner’s inches per acre duty of water for irrigation is incredible and palpably improbable. There is no merit in the claim. The lands in question, as pointed out in the opinion, are hilly and porous and present a very unusual and extreme condition from a water requirement standpoint. All of the witnesses who were engaged in farming the lands in question testified as to the amount of water required to properly mature the crops and their testimony fully *36supports the finding upon this subject, as does also the irrigation engineering experts produced by plaintiff. The testimony of one of the experts shows that from three and one-half to four miner’s inches per acre are reasonably necessary to obtain best results. In addition thereto, it appears in evidence that the division of water rights of this state approved a net duty of water of two inches to the acre to some 3,000 acres of land on upper Hat Creek as a net duty of water for irrigation of lands in that locality, and there is evidence to show that this allowance is insufficient to properly irrigate these lands. These lands are located in the immediate vicinity of the Joerger lands and they require a less amount of water than the Joerger lands, owing to the fact that the latter are hilly and more porous, in consequence of which frequent applications of water are required to maintain proper moisture for the crops. The amount of water here allowed is exactly the same as that allowed by the division of water rights to the lands in upper Hat Creek, the additional one-half inch being added by the court to cover the loss in transportation which the evidence shows occurs. Under all these circumstances we cannot say as a matter of law that the amount allowed in this particular case is excessive.