PUB00022

• Year: 2000
• Title: Layperson's Guide to California Water
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: California Water Education Foundation
• Description: Layperson's Guide to California Water
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

collapsed sending a 100-foot wave down into the
Santa Clara Valley (today's Santa Clarita Valley near
the Magic Mountain area north of the San Fernando
Valley). "The torrent swept clean 65 miles of rich,
fertile valley...One-hundred-ton blocks of concrete
rode the water like rubber ducks. Ranch houses were
crushed like eggshells, their cement foundations
pulverized. Steel bridges were smashed like tin cans,
and acres of citrus and nut trees uprooted..." Sections

WATER RIGHTS

As the state grew, a complex system of water rights
evolved. Under earlier Mexican rule, the prevailing
law was the pueblo right. Pueblos - primitive towns
- had the right to use water to satisfy its inhabitants
needs, ranging from domestic uses to irrigation. After
California was granted statehood in 1850. the
common law of England was adopted to include
"riparian rights" - water rights laws based on owner-
ship of land bordering a waterway. The riparian prop-
erty owner possesses the right to use that water, a
right that cannot be transferred apart from the land.

During the Gold Rush, miners developed a system
ot claiming rights to take and transport water. They
"posted notice" at diversion points from which the
right by priority of appropriation, or "first in time, first
in right," developed. Mining communities recognized
and protected the rights of "posted" appropriators.
These appropriative rights are water use rights based
on physical control, and beneficial use of the water
without regard to the relationship of land to water.
These rights are entitlements to a specific amount
of water with a definite date of priority and may be
sold or transferred. In 1914, maior changes in law
established a permit and licensing process for
establishing appropriative rights.

Conflicts developed between riparian water right
holders and appropriative water right holders that
continue today. Two important State Supreme Court
decisions. Lux ~ Haggin in 1886 and Herminghaus
v. Southern California Edison Company 40 years
later, reaffirmed the legal preeminence of riparian
rights. During the years that intervened between the
two cases, the number of cities, agricultural water
users and other appropriative users increased. When
Herminghaus was decided, riparian users were not
required to make reasonable use of water to
conserve it for appropriative users. However, rea-
sonable use of water was required by appropriative
users. Public consternation over the decision resulted
in a constitutional amendment in 1928 which sets
the standard for water use today. Article X, Section

of Ventura County lay under tons of debris and
more than 400 people were dead. according to
Margaret Leslie
Davis, author of
Rivers in the
Desert: William
Mulholland and
the Inventing at
Los Angeles.

2 of the Califor-
nia Constitution
requires that all
water use be
both "reason-
able and benefi.
cial." Beneficial
uses include ir-
rigation, domes-
tic, municipal
and industrial,
hydroelectric
power, recre-
ational use and
protection and
enhancement of
fish and wildlife.
Reasonable
use, however, is
more difficult to
categorize. It is
defined in part
by what it is not; that is, waste or unreasonable use.
According to the State Supreme Court reasonable-
ness is determined by the circumstances "but varies
as the current situation changes."

Appropriathe lrarer rights
H'ere J1rst established
H'hell millers claimed
H'aler by diverring it.

Today, California operates under a dual system which
recognizes both riparian and appropriative rights, In
addition, with the dawn of the 21 Slcentury, the courts
increasingly have recognized instream uses and
expanded public trust values in determining how the
state's water resources should be best used, The
public trust doctrine is rooted in Roman law. It
recognizes the public right to many natural resources
including "the air, running water, the sea and its
shore," The public trust doctrine requires the
sovereign, or state, to hold in trust designated
resources for the benefit of the people. Public trust
rights historically included navigation, commerce and
fishing, but have been broadened to include the right
to recreate, hunt and preserve scenic and ecological
values.

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