Court Opinion

ID: 9562250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:24:37.653279+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:15.951129
License: Public Domain

McFARLAND, Justice
(especially concurring) :
I concur in the able opinion of Justice Struckmeyer; however, because of the importance of the subject I feel that it is desirable to express my views emphasizing some of my reasons for my concurrence.
The issues involved in the case are set forth in the majority opinion. Also the history of the development of the law is likewise discussed. The people of this State have had for a century a great appreciation of the importance of the proper utilization of the water of our State. The history of its use—dating back a century—has been outlined in the many opinions of the trial court and of this Court, beginning with the Kent Decree in the case of Hurley v. Abbott et al. [See Adams v. Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association, 53 Ariz. 374, 89 P.2d 1060.]
The principal cases setting forth the rule governing subterranean waters are given in the majority opinion, beginning with Howard v. Perrin, 8 Ariz. 347, 76 P. 460, holding that percolating waters are the property of the owner of the soil, but the subterranean streams flowing in natural channels between well-defined banks are subject to appropriations under the same rule as surface streams. In the case of Maricopa County Municipal Water Conservation District No. 1 v. Southwest Cotton Company, 39 Ariz. 65, 4 P.2d 369, the late Justice Lockwood outlined the history of subterranean water law, affirmed the holding in Howard v. Perrin, supra, and held that:
“Whether percolating waters in Arizona since the adoption of the Howell Code have been governed by the old English common law in its strictest form, or by the American modification known as the rule of correlative rights, as explained and defined in Katz v. Walkinshaw, 141 Cal. 116, 70 P. 663, 74 P. 766, 64 L.R.A. 236, 99 Am.St.Rep. 35, and the cases *533which follow it, based on the doctrine of sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas, we need not now decide. When the matter is properly before us, we will determine the rule which applies.”
In Bristor v. Cheatham, 73 Ariz. 228, 240 P.2d 185, and on rehearing, 75 Ariz. 227, 255 P.2d 173, in the prevailing opinion the Court adopted the American rule that one may extract water for a reasonable, beneficial use of the land from which the same is taken.
The Legislature, in its 6th Special Session in 1948, adopted a ground-water code. This act of the Legislature was, by this Court, in an able land-mark decision authored by Justice Struckmeyer, held to be constitutional. In Southwest Engineering Co. v. Ernst, 79 Ariz. 403, 291 P.2d 764, this Court, in passing upon the groundwater code, held:
“* * * After a groundwater area is designated as critical, the construction of new irrigation wells therein is prohibited with certain exceptions, i. e., domestic and replacement wells. Those who are pumping from existing wells are allowed to continue to the full capacity of such wells. It should be emphasized that in critical areas the Act does not pruport to regulate the use of ground water between owners of land in cultivation, nor does it regulate the use of ground water outside of critical areas with exception that waste as defined is universally prohibited. By prohibiting the drilling of new wells in critical areas, the Act limits the use of water to present facilities thereby preventing additional withdrawals from underground supplies which are determined to be inadequate.
* * * * * *
“It can thus be seen that a conflict occurs between appellant and the state by reason of the interest of the public in the preservation from destruction of a resource essential to the sustenance of life. Where the public interest is thus significantly involved, the preferment of that interest over the property interest of the individual even to the extent of its destruction is a distinguishing characteristic of the exercise of the police power. The principle which we recognize here as controlling rests upon historic precedent extending back into the common law, Respublica v. Sparhawk, 1 Dali. 357, 1 L.Ed. 174, Bowditch v. City of Boston, 101 U.S. 16, 25 L.Ed. 980, and has had continuous recognition almost to the present moment. United States v. Caltex (Phillippines), Inc., 344 U.S. 149, 73 S.Ct. 200, 97 L.Ed. 157.
“It has application not alone to the disasters of fire, flood, pestilence and war, but to other circumstances where public interests dictate an unavoidable choice between one class of property as against another.”
In the instant case, as set forth in Justice Struckmeyer’s opinion, there can be no question but what the pumping of the water by the City of Tucson would deplete the source of supply of the petitioning users. The determination of the rights of the petitioners requires careful consideration of the objectives of the ground-water code.
In addition to those discussed in the Ernst case, supra, I call attention to the fact that what was known was the Central Arizona Project was pending in the United States Congress at that time. The Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior took the position that the Arizona Water Users in Central Arizona would not be saved by the Central Arizona Project from the disaster which would result from water shortage unless there was an underground water law which would regulate and prevent an expansion of the use of water; that otherwise new land would be put into cultivation which would deplete the water supply even more than what would be gained by the importation of water from the Colorado River. The Governor of Arizona, in compliance with this position, made many recommendations to the Legislature for the adoption of a groundwater code, and called the Legislature back into several sessions for its adoption. These facts are shown by his many mes*534sages to the Legislature. To the 4th Special Session he said:
“It is unnecessary to halt all pumping in the areas that now are using from one and a half to eighteen or twenty times the amount of water available. Our goal should be to endeavor to adopt a program that will spread the remaining water over say ten or twelve years. If we can do this, Arizona will be able to obtain the co-operation of the federal government to bring supplemental water from the Colorado River in sufficient quantity to give every one an adequate supply.
“If we are to obtain this Colorado River water, we must have this legislation. * * *” Journal of the House, 18th Legislature, 4th Spec. Session, p. 11
And, then, in his proclamation calling the 6th Special Session of the 18th Legislature, he said:
“WHEREAS, the regulation and control of Arizona’s groundwater resources is an imperative necessity, if this State’s rights in the Colorado river are to be realized, the imminent threat to its agricultural industry averted, and the consequent menace to its economy turned aside.” Journal of the House, 18th Legislature, 6th Spec. Session, p. 9
Then, in his message to the Legislature, he stated:
“It is too bad that we did not get a code back in 1937 when a legislative study conducted under the direction of the University of Arizona recommended groundwater controls. Our present development would have been more orderly and on a much sounder foundation. But it is useless to deplore past mistakes. We now have opportunity to correct that mistake and at the same time open the door for bringing in water from the Colorado river that should forever end the recurring threats of water shortage that has plagued this area since man arrived. “The proposed code that will be presented to you at this session represents the best thinking of all factions involved in this complicated matter. It has been studied and approved as the minimum that we must have to guarantee to the Bureau of Reclamation that we will have a stable economy for the repayment of costs of the Central Arizona Project. Both the Central Arizona Project Association and the Interstate Stream Commission have endorsed the Bill on that basis.” Id., at p. 11
I do not feel that there is any question but what the Legislature was seeking to meet these objectives when it passed the underground water code in 1948. In Chapter 5, Laws of 1948, 6th Special Session, Section 3, the Legislature stated its purpose as follows:
“Sec. 3. Declaration Of Policy. United State [sic] Geological Survey reports, based on studies covering a long period of years, indicate that large areas of rich agricultural lands in Arizona are dependent, in whole or in part, upon groundwater basins underlying such lands for their water supply, and that in a number of such basins withdrawals of ground water, greatly in excess of the safe annual yield thereof, is converting the lands of rich farming communities into critical groundwater areas, to the serious injury of the general economy and welfare of the state and its citizens. It is therefore declared to be the public policy of the state, in the interest of the agricultural stability, general economy and welfare of the state and its citizens to conserve and protect the water resources of the state from destruction, and for that purpose to provide reasonable regulations for the designation and establishment of such critical groundwater areas as may now or hereafter exist within the state.”
The act provides for the designation of “certain critical underground areas.”
“1. ‘Critical groundwater area’ means any groundwater basin as herein defined [in paragraph 5], or any designated subdivision thereof, not having sufficient ground water to provide a reasonably safe supply for irrigation of the cultivat*535ed lands in the basin at the then current rates of withdrawal.”
The question then before this Court is whether the City of Tucson, which is not in the same water basin designated as a critical area as the petitioners, has the right to pump water from that area into another water basin. Unquestionably it was the intent of the Legislature to protect the rights of users within a critical area and thereby prevent the withdrawals threatening to destroy one of the principle resources of the State which could only result in an injury to all. The critical areas were limited to water basins and subdivisions thereof. Then, as now, there were many recognized and established water rights in each water basin. For example, in Adams v. Salt River Valley Waters Users’ Association, supra, this Court recognized the right of the S.R.V.W.U. to pump water to supply irrigation not only for the lands from under which they were pumped but from other lands in the Project. So Justice Struckmeyer’s decision, I think, rightly limits the question in the instant case to the taking of water from critical areas and transporting it to other areas.
The City of Tucson in its brief cites § 45-301 and § 45-322, A.R.S. It contends that the provisions of these sections do not relate in any way to the extraction of water from land for domestic and industrial uses.
We cannot interpret the provisions of these sections to permit the transportation of water pumped from wells in a critical area to another area for the purposes set forth therein to the detriment of the rights of the users in the critical area. Such an interpretation might permit industries to practically exhaust a water supply in a critical area to the detriment of established rights. Such an interpretation would thereby permit the defeat of the objectives of the Legislature in passing the underground-water code for the protection of the rights of the users and the other objectives set forth in the governor’s message to the Legislature. Justice Struckmeyer’s decision provide for a mandatory injunction to prohibit the transportation of water out of the critical area to Tucson until the Avra Valley and Altar Valley are no longer critical within the meaning of the ground-water code or such other circumstances that would permit the pumping and transportation of ground water therefrom. It is not likely that the area will be declared to be a non-critical area within the foreseeable future. The other circumstances are not spelled out. I am personally of the opinion that the awarding of damages has certain obvious difficulties. The amount of damages to each user would be difficult to determine. This would require taking into consideration the additional costs of pumping water for a greater depth which could vary in different areas of the district, and from year to year. Also there is the question of the quality of water pumped at a greater depth. This would depend upon too many variables. The City may have several alternatives. For example, the City might buy sufficient amount of agricultural lands in the district now using a like quantity of water and retire them from cultivation. Or at least make some arrangement for non-cultivation until the City of Tucson can secure its fair share of Colorado River water under the Central Arizona Project legislation.