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Many questions remain unresolved con. cerning the rights to store water under- ground. In case of shortage, overlying owners must share the available supply according to need; earlier users do not have a priority. 52 CALIFORNIA WATER water is controlled by a watermaster. See, for example, the judgment in Chino Basin Municipal Water District v. City of Chino, et al., San Bernardino Superior Court, No. RCV 51010, formerly No. 164327. In determining the safe yield of a groundwater basin, any stored imported water is distinguished from the supply native to the basin. Los Angeles v. San Fernando, page 279. The owner of stored water is entitled to pump an amount of water equivalent to that im- ported, less losses. This right of recapture is separate from any rights to produce native groundwater. To date, regulation of groundwater storage has been left to the courts on a case-by-case basis, and little precedent exists. Many potential issues have yet to be addressed and remained unresolved; for example: Must space be reserved for the normal water level fluctuations during wet and dry cycles? Do over- lying entities have a priority over storage and use of water for distant areas if storage capacity is limited? Can local overlying water dis- trIcts charge for the use of storage capacity underlying their areas? Can counties or other local agencies regulate the use of underground storage capacity? What happens if the imported water degrades the quality of the native supply? Must the recapture area bear some re- lationship to the areas where the water was put underground? Groundwater movement and the time in which recapture is permit- ted must also be addressed. Groundwater storage capacity becomes increasingly valuable as good surface sites are built upon or ruled out for environmental reasons. More regulation by the courts, the state legislature, or local government can be expected. Priority/Interrelationship with Other Water Rights Priorities between overlying owners. Each overlying O"'Iler is entitled only to the quantity reasonably necessary and available. In cases of water shortage, all overlying owners are entitled to a fair and just proportion of the available waters. Pasadena, pages 925- 926. The rights of overlying users are based solely on the o"'Ilers' current reasonable and beneficial need for water, not past use or time pumping is commenced. Tehachapi-Cummings, page 1001. Priorities between overlying owners and appropriators. Owners of land overlying percolating waters have paramount rights, which allow appropriative rights to attach only to surplus waters. Califor- nia Water Service Co. v. Edward Sidebotham & Son, Inc. (1964) 224 Cal.App.2d 715, 725. The rights of the overlying owner to the quan- tity of water necessary for use on overlying land are paramount to an appropriation for use on distant land. Katz, pages 134-137. An ap- propriator must yield to an overlying user in the event of a shortage