Court Opinion

ID: 9883547
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:46:47.905803+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:25.286519
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
The majority opinion is based upon at least two fundamental misconceptions of law. First, this case does not involve water rights in the ordinary sense. That is, it does not involve questions relating to the right to divert and use water from a stream or other source; questions of priority or riparian ownership or beneficial use of water as defined in our statutes and court decisions. It involves the validity of a contract between the government of the United States and an irrigation district organized and existing under the laws of this state.
Second, even if the law relating to water rights were involved, the theory enunciated in the majority opinion of title to all domestic water being held in trust by the state is fundamentally unsound and unsupported in law, tradition, history, public policy, practice or human experience.
A brief statement relative to the origin and development of the Central Valley Project and its objectives will demonstrate that the contract here involved was entered into in accordance with federal and state law and is therefore valid.
The Central Valley Project was originally authorized by the State of California for construction by its Water Project Authority under the Central Valley Project Act of 1933 (Cal. Stats. 1933, § 1042, p. 2643, effective after referendum action, January 13, 1934, now Wat. Code, § 11100 et seq.). No action *664was taken by the Water Project Authority for the construction of this project, but on September 10, 1935, President Roosevelt, by executive order, transferred $20,000,000 under the Federal Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 to the Department of the Interior, Reclamation Service, for construction of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River. The project was thereafter constructed as a reclamation project pursuant to the Reclamation Act above referred to and acts amendatory thereto. There is no question but that the United States government complied with all of the provisions of the law of California in the acquisition of the water rights incident to this project and that the construction, operation and maintenance of the storage dams and facilities are in every respect in accordance with the laws of this state. It is likewise clear that this project was constructed in accordance with the laws of the United States and that the authority exercised by the Reclamation Service in storing and distributing the water developed by said project is strictly in accord with both the laws of the United States and of the State of California. Such being the case, we must look to these laws to determine whether or not the state agency involved in this case had the authority to enter into a contract with the United States government for the purchase of the water developed by said project. There is no question but that both the federal and state laws authorize the execution of such contracts. So far as our state law is concerned, the contract here involved is expressly authorized by the Irrigation District Federal Cooperation Law (Wat. Code, § 23175 et seq.) of this state which authorizes a state agency to contract with the United States for a water supply (Wat. Code, § 23196a), and to deliver, distribute, and apportion this supply as required by federal law (Wat. Code, §§ 23197a, 23200).
The contract here involved is also expressly authorized by the federal laws relating to the reclamation of arid lands of the west, and particularly by section 9(e) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 (33 Stats. 1939, p. 1196, 43 U.S.C., § 485h(e) 1946 F.R.L.A. 600), and section 46 of the Omnibus Adjustment Act of 1926 (46 Stats, of 1926, p. 649, 43 U.S.C., § 423e 1946 F.R.L.A. 318). These laws, in themselves, and in conjunction with the state laws do not deprive anyone of property without due process of law, nor deny to anyone equal protection of the laws, and do not derogate from the powers reserved to the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
*665There is no provision of law in this state which imposes any restriction against an agency of this state from entering into a contract with the United States involving the subject matter of the contract here under consideraion. The 160-acre limitation for the use of water from a reclamation project has been in existence since 1902 and this provision has never been successfully assailed as impinging any constitutional right of anyone who has been called upon to comply with the provisions of the Reclamation Act.
We are not here concerned with the social and economic philosophy which was the background of the inclusion of the 160-acre limitation in the Reclamation Act. It is not our province to declare whether this provision of law is good or bad. It was adopted by Congress after many years of debate, and although numerous assaults have been made against it, Congress has not only refused to delete it from the act but has on two occasions, once in 1926 and again in 1939, expressly reaffirmed their belief in the wisdom of this provision. Neither has the Legislature of California seen fit to disapprove the inclusion of this provision in the contracts which it has authorized state agencies to negotiate with the United States government for the distribution of water from reclamation projects. The fact that in the ease here involved the inhabitants of the district which negotiated the contract containing the 160-acre limitation, voted overwhelmingly in favor of said contract, should be persuasive evidence that the provision is not detrimental to the social and economic welfare of the people affected by it.
With respect to the title to the unappropriated waters of this state, the statutes of this state declare that “The sovereignty of the State resides in the people thereof. ...” (Gov. Code, §100), and that “All property within the limits of the State, which does not belong to any person, belongs to the people” (Gov. Code, §182). Since the power of sovereignty is vested in the people, and all property within the limits of the state, which does not belong to any person, belongs to the people, it follows that the unappropriated waters of the state are owned by the people under their power of sovereignty. The people have, through the Constitution, delegated this power to the executive and legislative branches of the government. The Legislature of this state has provided by law a comprehensive system for the appropriation, distribution and use of the waters of this state, including the *666impounding and storage of the seasonal run-off for distribution and use for beneficial purposes. I refer to the Water Code of this state adopted by the Legislature in 1943 which contains the following provisions (among others) with respect to the ownership, appropriation and use of the domestic waters of this state:
“102. All water within the State is the property of the people of the State, but the right to the use of water may be acquired by appropriation in the manner provided by law.
“103. In the enactment of this code the Legislature does not intend thereby to effect any change in the law relating to water rights.
“104. It is hereby declared that the people of the State have a paramount interest in the use of all the water of the State and that the State shall determine what water of the State, surface and underground, can be converted to public use or controlled for public protection.
“105. It is hereby declared that the protection of the public interest in the development of the water resources of the State is of vital concern to the people of the State and that the State shall determine in what way the water of the State, both surface and underground, should be developed for the greatest public benefit.
“106. It is hereby declared to be the established policy of this State that the use of water for domestic purposes is the highest use of water and that the next highest use is for irrigation.” (Wat. Code, §§ 102, 103, 104, 105, and 106.)
In the adoption of the state Water Code, the Legislature has made it abundantly clear that anyone complying with the laws of this state may be granted a right to appropriate and use any unappropriated water which he can put to a beneficial use. The government of the United States, acting under valid acts of Congress, may become an appropriator of any of the unappropriated waters of this state the same as any other public or private corporation or individual who complies with the law of this state governing the appropriation and use of such waters.
After reviewing the history of the water law of California the majority opinion states: “It is therefore concluded that the title to the unappropriated waters of the state is in the State of California in trust for the use and benefit of the beneficiaries of that trust; that the trust character of that title is anchored in the state by constitutional provisions, by statutes enacted in furtherance thereof, and by the decisional *667law of the state. ...” The majority opinion does not cite any constitutional or statutory provision or any decision of any court of this state which supports the foregoing statement. On the contrary there is not a single constitutional or statutory provision or decision of any court of this state from which it is possible to draw such conclusion. The words trust or trustee or trust relationship do not appear in any constitutional or statutory provision or any court decision of this state dealing with the title or ownership of water by the State of California.
The reasoning of the majority with respect to the right of the beneficiaries under the so-called trust to the beneficial use of water seems incoherent. It proceeds from the premise “. . . that the title to the unappropriated domestic waters of the state is in the State of California in trust for the use and benefit of the beneficiaries of that trust;... that the beneficiaries of that trust are the water users of the state who in a general sense constitute all of the people of the state; that the beneficiaries of the trust relationship whose rights are here under consideration are those present or prospective users who individually or in properly classified groups bring themselves within the orbit of the state law under which they may be in position to demand benefits without discrimination, and that within that category are the landowners of the district.” (Emphasis added.)
Under the foregoing line of- reasoning no vested right may ever be acquired by any individual or group of individuals to appropriate and use a given quantity of water for a beneficial purpose even though they have complied with all the provisions of the statutory law of this state, as the state would have no power to grant a specific right to any individual unless every other individual who may have a use for water has received his share. The following practical example may demonstrate the absurdity of the reasoning of the majority. It is a matter of common knowledge that there are vast areas of land in this state which have no available water supply. Under existing law, however, an individual or group of individuals may acquire a right to develop a water supply from unappropriated waters (see Wat. Code, §§ 1252, 1252.5, 1253, 1350, 1375, 1380, 1390, 1450, 1455) by pumping from wells or storage of run-off which may be adequate to supply the limited areas owned by those who develop such supply. However, there may be other areas in the same locality for which no water is available because of the prior appropriation and *668development of the supply made available to those who first obtained a permit and proceeded with the installation of facilities for the appropriation and use of the entire available supply. It is obvious that under the trust theory advanced in the majority opinion, the state could not grant a right to one user which would deprive another of his share even though the first appropriator was devoting all of the available water to a beneficial use on his land. In this connection the majority opinion states, “The trust relationship existing between the state and the beneficiaries of the trust must therefore be kept in mind in connection with any transactions between the state or any of its agencies and outside parties. It follows that when an outside party, such as the United States, by contract, legislation or otherwise, steps into the shoes of the state to administer that trust by the development, conservation and distribution of the trust res, it is bound by the same rules of law as surround and govern the State of California or any other purveyor of water of the state for the benefit of its water users. The state may not therefore lawfully dispossess itself of the title to such water and may not surrender its control of the same in any way inconsistent with the administration of the trust under which the title is held. The state by general law may and has in the main prescribed the terms and conditions under which the several classes of water users may become secure in their right to the water and use thereof.” (Emphasis added.) But the state has not classified water users nor prescribed the terms and conditions under which they may become secure in their right to the water and use thereof on any theory of trust relationship between it and the users. On the other hand the state has provided that an individual or group of individuals may obtain a permit to appropriate and use a specific quantity of water, and to the extent that such appropriation is prior in time, it is prior in right to other appropriations and constitutes a vested right protected by the due process clauses of both the state and federal Constitutions. (See Wat. Code, §§ 1450, 1455; Temescal Water Co. v. Department of Public Works, 44 Cal.2d 90 [280 P.2d 1].) In this connection, the Water Code provides (see Wat. Code, § 1252.5) that the government of the United States may acquire a water right by appropriation in the same manner as any individual or corporation. The foregoing provisions of the Water Code are in clear conflict with the so-called trust theory advanced in the majority opinion. It should be *669perfectly obvious that the provisions of the Water Code above cited which confer a vested right upon appropriators of water, including the United States, cannot stand in the face of the holding of the majority here that the state holds the title to all the unappropriated domestic waters of the state in trust for all of the water users of the state, as it cannot be denied that the effect of the provisions of the Water Code which authorize the granting of permits for the appropriation and use of the unappropriated waters of the state by individuals and private and public corporations, including the United States, is to deprive some of the beneficiaries of the trust of their share of the trust res—water—by the first come, first served policy with respect to the appropriation of the unappropriated domestic waters of the state as declared in the Water Code. The majority opinion expressly states that “The state may not therefore lawfully dispossess itself of the title to such water [unappropriated domestic water] and may not surrender its control of the same in any way inconsistent with the administration of the trust under which the title is held.” The inevitable conclusion which must be reached from the reasoning of the majority opinion is that all unappropriated domestic waters of the state are held in trust for the use of all of the people of the state who are in a position to put their respective shares of the water to a beneficial use and that such beneficiaries have the right to demand and receive their respective shares of such water as beneficiaries of said trust. In this connection the majority states “It is they who are in a position to avail themselves of the right to beneficial use of the waters to be purveyed and to demand indiscriminate service.”
It must be remembered that there is no provision in either the state or federal law which purports to allocate any portion of the water developed by the Central Valley Project to the plaintiff in this action or to any other agency, group or individual. The allocation and distribution of said water is a matter to be provided for by contract entered into pursuant to the provisions of the federal and state laws on this subject. After reviewing its trust relationship theory the majority opinion states “There is nothing in the foregoing declaration [trust relationship between state and present or prospective water users] which interjects anything new into the water law of this state. It is but a recognition and redeclaration of existing fundamental concepts of this phase of our law.”
If the majority is aware of any prior declaration of this *670or any other court of this state invoking the trust relationship concept to state-owned water rights it has failed to disclose the source or location of such declaration. While it may not be new to the majority, it is both new and novel to me and is basically unsound.
The only authorities upon which the majority rely for the so-called trust relationship are the following: Merchants Nat. Bank v. Escondido Irr. Dist., 144 Cal. 329 [77 P. 937]; Tulare Irr. Dist. v. Collins, 154 Cal. 440 [97 P. 1124]; Hall v. Superior Court, 198 Cal. 373 [245 P. 814]; Lindsay-Strathmore Irr. Dist. v. Wutchumna W. Co., 111 Cal.App. 688 [296 P. 933] ; Allen v. Hussey, 101 Cal.App.2d 457 [225 P. 674], None of these cases even mentions the question of title or ownership of the unappropriated domestic waters of the State of California. They deal exclusively with the rights of landowners within irrigation districts to receive their respective proportions of the water which the irrigation district has acquired for the use and benefit of the lands within the district. It is obvious that in administering the distribution of water to landowners within an irrigation district, the district is acting as a trustee and the landowner a beneficiary, as the landowner supplies the funds which enable the district to acquire and distribute the water, and the district should be required to distribute available water to landowners on a fair and equitable basis so that there will be no discrimination between them. It is clear that the landowner within an irrigation district has no property right in any particular quantity of water, as the title to the water is vested in the irrigation district which is required to distribute it to the landowners in accordance with the latters’ needs. The situation with respect to the ownership of unappropriated domestic water by the state is entirely different. The state does not undertake to distribute any particular quantity of water to anyone. It has established an agency (the Division of Water Resources) to determine the quantity of water available and to grant permits for the use of such water to those making application therefor in accordance with the law. There is no provision of law requiring the Division of Water Resources to supervise the distribution of water covered by permits issued by said division, and if the right of the permittee is violated by a third person, he must resort to the courts for the enforcement of his right. The Water Code makes it crystal clear that anyone complying with its provisions may acquire the right to use *671water by appropriation in the manner provided by law. (See Wat. Code, § 102.) The right so acquired is a property right and protected by the due process clauses of both the state and federal Constitutions.
The concept of the trust character of title to the domestic waters of this state being vested in the State of California as enunciated in the majority opinion is clearly out of harmony not only with the Constitution and statutes of this state but with the decisional law as well. This is demonstrated by the discussion in the majority opinion relative to the development of the law relating to water rights in this state. At the beginning of this discussion the majority opinion refers to the case of Lux v. Haggin decided by this court in 1886 (69 Cal. 255). Referring to the holding of this court in Lux v. Haggin, supra, the majority states: "The doctrine was declared to be that the owner of real property bordering such a river or stream had a right co-existent with the same rights of other landowners on the stream, to the use of its waters and the flow thereof as it was ‘wont to do in the course of nature’ unimpaired in quality and undiminished in quantity. This right was declared by this court in Lux v. Haggin, supra, 69 Cal. 255, to be a right appurtenant to the land, in fact a part and parcel of the land itself. Under this doctrine the riparian owner had the right to insist that the full flow of the stream continue to pass his land in its natural state whether he needed the water or not. This riparian right as so defined was declared by this court to be a property right which vested in the riparian owner and as such was protected by the state and federal Constitutions. It could not be limited or impaired without due process of law and without just compensation.” It is conceded by the majority that the rule announced in Lux v. Haggin, supra, continued to be the rule of decision in this state until 1933 when this court was persuaded by opinions prepared by the facile pen of Mr. Justice Shenk (see Gin S. Chow v. City of Santa Barbara, 217 Cal. 673 [22 P.2d 5] ; Peabody v. City of Vallejo, 2 Cal.2d 351 [40 P.2d 486]) to hold that this doctrine was no longer applicable and was supplanted by the doctrine of reasonable use even as against appropriates. It should be noted that the theory of the trust character of title to water rights had not then been conceived by Mr. Justice Shenk as no mention was made of this theory until now. It would seem, however, that if the state ever held the title to the domestic waters of this state *672in trust, it did so from the beginning; that is, from the time the state was admitted into the union and became an entity capable of exercising ownership and possession of property. The majority here do not claim that this trust theory of title to water rights originated with the adoption of the Water Commission Act in 1913 or the adoption of the amendment to the Constitution in 1928 (Cal. Const., art. XIV, § 3) or with the sweeping pronouncements contained in the decisions of this court in the Gin Chow and Peabody cases. This theory must have originated and come into being when the Constitution of 1849 was adopted and existed at the time this court decided Lux v. Haggin, supra, in 1886, and during all of the intervening years when this court was applying the doctrine announced in Lux v. Haggin. Such being the case, can it he said that the doctrine of Lux v. Haggin and all of the other decisions of this court in water rights eases between 1886 and the decision of the Gin Chow case in 1933 is compatible with the theory that the State of California held the title to the domestic waters of the state in trust for water users who are said to be the beneficiaries of the so-called trust. The answer is obvious. The declaration of the riparian right doctrine in Lux v. Haggin, supra, is clearly repugnant to any trust concept. Under this doctrine the riparian owner got title to the riparian right when a patent was issued to him for his riparian land whether that patent came from the state or federal government. Under this doctrine the right to have the full flow of the stream past his land unimpaired in quality and undiminished in quantity except by the reasonable use of another riparian owner, was a vested right, a part and parcel of the land itself and protected by the due process clauses of both the state and federal Constitutions. (Miller & Lux v. Madera Canal etc. Co., 155 Cal. 59 [99 P. 502, 22 L.R.A.N.S. 391].) While the majority opinion does not purport to express or declare what was the genesis of the so-called trust title theory, there are declarations in said opinion from which an inference might be drawn that the Water Commission Act plus the 1928 constitutional amendment plus the doctrine announced in the Gin Chow and Peabody cases gave rise to such theory. After discussing the effect of the foregoing the majority opinion states: “It is thus apparent that the more recent changes in the constitutional and decisional law of this state had the effect of making available for beneficial uses by appropriation and other means great *673volumes of unappropriated waters of the state.” I have difficulty attempting to rationalize the foregoing statement. If the state ever had title to the waters referred to, it never lost it. If it did not have title to said waters, the title must have been vested in others. If it was vested in others, the only manner in which it could acquire title thereto was by purchase or the exercise of its power of eminent domain unless the users voluntarily abandoned the waters and made them available for appropriation and use by others. Certainly, the Legislature could not by statute nor the people by the adoption of a constitutional amendment nor could this court by a valid rule of decision divest an owner of a valid title to a water right any more than any of those departments of government could validly divest an owner of private property of his title to lands or personal belongings. What really happened in this melee of incongruity is that this court saw fit to change the riparian right doctrine from that announced in Lux v. Haggin, supra, to the so-called reasonable use doctrine as announced in the Gin Chow and Peabody cases by holding that the Lux v. Haggin doctrine had become outmoded and was not adapted to the arid conditions existing in this state. What this court did in the said last mentioned decisions had the effect of overruling all of the former decisions of this court from Lux v. Haggin in 1886 to Herminghaus v. Southern Calif. Edison Co., 200 Cal. 81 [252 P. 607], decided in 1926, as it is obvious that said rule could not be changed without overruling said cases which had held that the riparian right doctrine as announced in Lux v. Haggin was a vested property right protected by the due process clauses of both the federal and state Constitutions. What Mr. Justice Shenk did in the Peabody and Gin Chow cases was simply to ignore the holding of this court in Miller & Lux v. Madera Canal etc. Co., 155 Cal. 59 [99 P. 502], by holding that the doctrine of reasonable use even as against an appropriator did not violate the due process clauses of the federal and state Constitutions. I have heretofore stated that I would have arrived at the same conclusion by forthrightly overruling all of the decisions of this court applying the Lux v. Haggin doctrine as being unsound in principle and based upon a misapprehension of the law applicable to water rights (see dissenting opinion in City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra, 33 Cal.2d 908, at p. 938 [207 P.2d 17]).
*674The majority opinion correctly states that the decision of this court in Lux v. Haggin, supra, was based upon the declaration contained in section 4468 of the Political Code which provided at that time as follows: “The common law of England, so far as it is not repugnant to or inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, or the Constitution or laws of the State of California, shall be the rule of decision in all the courts of this state.” But the majority opinion is in error when it states: “This court took the general language of that declaration by its four corners and applied the English common law doctrine of riparian rights to the ownership, control and use of the waters of the rivers and streams of the state.” While it is true that the majority of this court in its opinion in Lux v. Haggin, supra, assumed that the riparian right doctrine as there declared was based upon the common law of England, such assumption was erroneous and without foundation in fact or law as there now appears to be no doubt that the riparian right doctrine was not a part of the common law of England but a part of the civil law and the first reference to it is contained in the Code Napoleon, the French Civil Code, in the year 1804. The first decision announcing the riparian right doctrine in any common law country was the case of Tyler v. Wilkinson, 4 Mason 397 [F. Cas. No. 14312], which was written by Mr. Justice Story of the Supreme Court of the United States while sitting as a circuit judge in the Rhode Island circuit in the June term of 1827. The first case involving the riparian right doctrine in England was decided in 1849 and referred to Tyler v. Wilkinson as its authority. My authority for the foregoing statement is an article written by Mr. Samuel C. Wiel of the California Bar, an eminent authority on water law, author of the text “Water Law in the Western States” and various other publications on water law. This article was published in the Harvard Law Review, Volume XXXIII, Number 2, in 1920.
The fallacy underlying the basis for the decision of this court in Lux v. Haggin, supra, has permeated numerous decisions of this court and is no doubt the reason for much of the confusion which has been brought about as the result of the judicial fumbling and bungling of the water laws of this state (see dissenting opinion in City of Pasadena v. City of Alhambra, 33 Cal.2d 908, at 938 [207 P.2d 17]).
Returning to the so-called trust title theory of water rights, the majority opinion does not purport to delineate the terms *675of the so-called trust. But in view of the position taken by the majority that the domestic waters, the title to which is held in trust by the state, must be administered in accordance with the statutory and decisional law of the state, we may assume that such law may be resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining the terms of the trust. If such is the case, it would seem that the terms of such trust may be changed at every session of the Legislature or during every period that a new group of justices constitutes a majority of the Supreme Court of this state. In other words this so-called trust character of the title to the domestic waters of this state, has no stability whatsoever and may be changed from decade to decade or from year to year as may be dictated by the political fortunes of those who declare and administer it.
The record in this case discloses that in the construction and operation of the units of the Central Valley Project the United States through its Bureau of Reclamation has acquired by purchase and the exercise of the power of eminent domain vast areas of privately owned lands and numerous water rights some of which were based upon filings of applications for the appropriation of unappropriated waters by the State of California and various agencies of the state such as irrigation districts and municipal water districts and also from many private individuals and corporations which claimed to own vested rights in the domestic waters of this state both as appropriators and riparian owners. Included among the agencies from which such rights were acquired by the United States are Madera Irrigation District, Tranquility Irrigation District, James Irrigation District, and the following private or quasi-public corporations: Miller and Lux, Inc., Gravelly Ford Canal Company, Kings River Canal and Irrigation Company, Columbia Canal Company, San Luis Canal Company, Firebaugh Canal Company, Gerlach Live Stock Company, Hollister Land and Canal Company, Chowchilla Farms, Inc., Edison Securities Company and many other corporations and individuals. While the consideration paid by the United States for the rights acquired from the above public agencies, corporations and individuals is not disclosed, it appears, that the sum of $2,450,000 was paid to Miller and Lux, Inc., for title to all of the waters of the San Joaquin River in excess of flows specified in schedules attached to the agreement of purchase (see Report Prepared Pursuant to Senate Concurrent Reso*676lution Number 48, Legislature of 1951, introduced in evidence as Water Project Authority’s Exhibit N.)
If the majority is right in holding that the title in all of the water rights acquired by the United States in connection with the construction, development and operation of the Central Valley Project is held in trust for the water users of this state, such holding must be based upon the premise that all of the rights so acquired were held in trust by the owners of such rights who conveyed the same to the United States. This would apply to the vast riparian right holdings of Miller and Lux, Inc., which were adjudicated by numerous decisions of this court as being a part and parcel of the lands of said corporation, title to which was vouchsafed by the due process clauses of both the federal and state Constitutions.
While there can be no question that the Supreme Court of the United States has held in many cases that the matter of ownership, distribution and use of water, with few limited exceptions, is within the jurisdiction of the state and the determination of the right to appropriate and use water is controlled by state law (Kansas v. Colorado, 206 U.S. 46, 93-94 [27 S.Ct. 655, 51 L.Ed. 956] ; United States v. Arizona, 295 U.S. 174 [55 S.Ct. 666, 79 L.Ed. 1371] ; United States v. Gerlach Live Stock Co., 339 U.S. 725 [70 S.Ct. 955, 94 L.Ed. 1231]), recent decisions of that court make it clear that there are certain fields in which the federal law prevails over the state and that the state’s control of the waters within the state is not complete and unqualified (see United States v. San Francisco, 310 U.S. 16 [60 S.Ct. 749, 84 L.Ed. 1050] ; First Iowa Hydro-Electric Coop. v. Federal Power Com., 328 U.S. 152 [66 S.Ct. 906, 90 L.Ed. 1143]; Henry Ford & Son v. Little Falls Fibre Co., 280 U.S. 369 [50 S.Ct. 140, 74 L.Ed. 483]; Federal Power Com. v. Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., 347 U.S. 239 [74 S.Ct. 487, 98 L.Ed. 666] ; Federal Power Com. v. State of Oregon, 349 U.S. 435 [75 S.Ct. 832, 99 L.Ed. 1215] ; State of Wash. Dept. of Game v. Federal Power Com., 207 F.2d 391; Alabama Power Co. v. Gulf Power Co., 283 F. 606; California Oregon Power Co. v. Superior Court, 45 Cal.2d 858 [291 P.2d 455]). It seems clear, however, that in the construction and operation of the units of the Central Valley Project the United States proceeded under the provisions of the Reclamation Act (43 U.S.C., § 731 et seq.) and with full recognition of the water rights there involved having valid *677existence under state law (United States v. Gerlach Live Stock Co., 339 U.S. 725 [70 S.Ct. 955, 94 L.Ed. 1231]).
It is a matter of common knowledge that there are thousands, probably millions of acres of land in California which are still in government ownership and vast water resources exist in these regions. As I read the recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, I have little doubt that under the rules of law announced therein, the federal government may lawfully exercise exclusive control over the water resources which exist on lands and in areas owned and controlled by it. I refer to the national forests and the undeveloped areas of this state which remain almost exclusively in government ownership and control.
We may take judicial notice that the federal government is now engaged in the construction of another large reclamation project which will be annexed to and contribute to the water resources of the Central Valley Project. I refer to the Trinity River Project which contemplates the construction of a dam 465 feet high on the Trinity River near Weaverville in Trinity County, which will impound the run-off of the Trinity River watershed and will have a capacity of approximately 2,500,000 acre feet of storage. More than 75 per cent of the 450,000 acres of land embraced within this project is owned by the United States government. When this dam is completed and the water therefrom discharged into the Sacramento River basin, the United States government will no doubt proceed to dispose of it in accordance with the laws of the United States including the 160-acre limitation in the Reclamation Act. It does not seem reasonable and logical to me that this court should say to the government of the United States that you cannot impound the waters of the Trinity River basin which are now running to waste and causing immeasurable flood damage, and divert it into areas where it may be used for the irrigation and improvement of arid lands and other useful purposes unless you eliminate from your contracts for the distribution of this water the 160-acre limitation which the Congress of the United States has said must be included in such contracts. Vet, this requirement must flow from the holding of the majority here even though the water made available by said project is produced from a drainage basin, 75 per cent of the area of which is owned by the United States.
It is my view that when the United States constructs a reclamation project by impounding water in compliance with *678both state and federal laws, it is the owner of that water and may dispose of it as provided by federal law, and it may exact any condition which the federal law sees fit to provide for in connection with the sale and distribution of that water. Of course this does not mean that Congress could impose restrictions in conflict with constitutional principles. It may be that the State of California by legislative action could so restrict the appropriation of its water resources that the federal government would not see fit to develop further reclamation projects in this state, but so long as the federal government complies with the law of the State of California in the construction, operation and maintenance of its reclamation projects, I am disposed to hold that it may sell and distribute the water developed by said projects under contracts of the type here involved which, in my opinion, do not violate any provision of the Constitution and laws of this state or the Constitution and laws of the United States.
We have here no controversy between the State of California and the United States. The attorney general of California takes the position that the contracts here involved are valid. The agencies here involved have all accepted and approved these contracts both by their governing boards and the inhabitants of the districts affected thereby. The validity of these contracts is challenged only by individuals who claim that their property rights will be affected thereby. I do not agree.
At the outset of this opinion I stated that the majority opinion is based upon two fundamental misconceptions. I then called attention to the fact that the majority opinion is written upon the assumption that this is a case involving water rights and that the State of California holds title to all of the domestic waters of the state in trust. I think it proper to add another fundamental misconception on which the majority opinion is based; that is, that the so-called 160-acre limitation is in effect an excess land law. With this concept I do not agree. In an excellent article by Professor Paul S. Taylor, Professor of Economics, University of California, printed in the Yale Law Journal, Volume 64, Number 4, February, 1955, entitled “The Excess Land Law: Execution of a Public Policy ” he states in part:
“A great confusion pervades discussion of the excess land law and threatens disaster to public policy regarding disposing of public domain. Congress has declared this policy *679to be the widespread distribution of benefits, and the curbing of monopoly and speculation, whether the domain is in form of land, water, or both. The excess land provision of the National Reclamation Act of 1902 is a means of attaining these ends in the public disposal of water.
“General and legal acceptance have joined to confer authority upon either of two descriptive titles—‘excess land law’ or ‘160-acre limitation’—both of them equally deceptive. The law is not really a land law, and it places no limitation whatsoever upon the acreage a man may own. The restraint is neither upon acreage of land nor upon water, but upon the individual. No individual is entitled to receive more than an equitable share of the water distributed under reclamation law. The maximum individual share is set at an amount of water necessary to irrigate 160 acres of land.
“Among the sources of this confusion of language, two are ‘accidents’—one physical, the other historical. The first is the unequal geographical distribution of water. Water and land are two halves of a productive whole everywhere. Bast of the one hundredth meridian nature has joined them, and any description or analysis of agricultural land can assume water. West of the hundredth meridian water and land are separate. Man-made works—reservoirs and canals—are required to join them. Water and land, therefore, must be treated separately, whether as physical entities, objects of private ownership, or the concern of public policy. Water cannot be assumed as the natural, inevitable and permanent adjunct of land. Land ownership does not equal water ownership west of the hundredth meridian.
“The second source of confusion is an historical accident. Policy was debated and formulated in the nineteenth century when settlement was still east of the hundredth meridian, and water was not a concern. The great legislative landmarks in the nation’s policy favoring actual settlers are land laws—the Pre-emption Act of 1841 and the Homestead Act of 1862. After these acts were passed, settlement crossed the hundredth meridian, and water became the primary concern. General policy was not altered with the movement to the arid belt, but the techniques and devices for implementing it had to change. The artificial union of land and water required more complex thought and language than was necessary where land and water are joined naturally. The means of applying public policy to water had to be de*680dared separately, spelled out in new terms. Chief among the new techniques was the excess land law.
“It took something of a mental wrench to turn American lawmakers and administrators from land policy to water policy. The natural tendency was to carry over the language of earlier land problems to the more complex problems of water. A result of this inertia has been confusion in thought as well as in language west of the hundredth meridian, where thinking in terms of land policy overemphasizes land and underemphasizes water. Some persons have found it advantageous to exploit the confusion. Those who achieved what Major Powell called ‘monopoly of land’ utilize this habit of thinking in terms of land policy to confuse the public, to suggest that private landowners have a moral claim to water in proportion to their landholdings whatever their size, and to defeat the efforts of legislators who seek equitable distribution of water among individuals. Even administrators do not find it easy to remember that the essential question is not, who owns the land, but who gets the water.
“The fact of importance above all others in federal reclamation is that the landowner calls upon the government to provide him with water. It is for Congress representing the general interest, and not for the landowner, to say upon what terms, in what amount, and in accord with what policy the public will supply water. This is a first principle inherent in a relationship between the public that gives and an individual who receives. The concern of the law is to distribute water equitably among individual landowners, not —except below 160 acres—in proportion to their holdings of land. This principle is accepted without question by most landholders seeking water under reclamation law; the few who object usually are holders of excess land.”
I am in full accord with the views expressed by Professor Taylor and commend the reading of his article in full by those who are interested in this subject.
Since the majority opinion is based upon the wholly unsound and unsupported assumption that the title to the water rights acquired by the United States in the construction, development and operation of the Central Valley Project are held in trust for the use and benefit of the water users of California and that the title to such rights is therefore restricted to the extent that the United States may not dispose of such water pursuant to the Reclamation Act of 1902 and acts amendatory thereto containing the so-called 160-*681acre limitation, it follows that the conclusion reached by the majority that the contract here involved deprives certain landowners within the plaintiff irrigation district of vested rights without due process of law and without just compensation is equally unsound and unsupported.
For the reasons hereinabove stated I would reverse the judgment.
The petition of defendant and appellant for a rehearing was denied February 19, 1957. Gibson, C. J., Carter, J., and Traynor, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.