Irvine Ranch Water Dist. v. Orange County Water Dist. CA2/5

I. BACKGROUND

A. Pertinent Provisions of the Orange County Water District Act “To maintain an adequate level of groundwater in its territory and protect groundwater quality, [OCWD] acquires water from various sources at its own expense and discharges it

1 The uncodified Act is Chapter 40 of the Water Code Appendix. Undesignated section references that follow are to the Act as reprinted in West’s Annotated California Water Code Appendix.

3 from [OCWD] facilities in Orange County. This process replenishes or ‘recharges’ groundwater in the [Basin]. . . . [¶] . . . [¶] [OCWD’s] recharge activities effectively store water in the groundwater basin, but [OCWD] does not itself use or extract groundwater. Other entities, such as [Irvine Ranch], operate extraction wells and produce water for public drinking water supplies and for other uses.” (Orange Co. Water Dist. v. Sabic Innovative Plastics US, LLC (2017) 14 Cal.App.5th 343, 358-359.) Irvine Ranch and similar entities are therefore often referred to as “producers” of water.2 (Wat. Code, § 60021.) As we shall discuss in more detail, producers collectively pump the majority of their water from the Basin, but they also rely on other…