Dow

This water rights case involves the interpretation of a decree in a stream adjudication and, more particularly, the interplay between the right to divert water to storage in a reservoir and the right to divert water for direct application to beneficial use.

The specific issue here is whether the trial court correctly interpreted a 1940 judgment and decree in an adjudication of the water rights on the Susan River stream system (the Susan River decree). We conclude the court did not correctly interpret the decree. As we will explain, ■ the trial court erred in determining that paragraph 21 of the decree gives defendant Lassen Irrigation Company (the Irrigation Company) a right to divert water from the Susan River for direct application to beneficial use that is measured by the capacity of the Irrigation Company’s three reservoirs (estimated at 31,500 acre-feet). Properly interpreted, the Susan River decree does give the Irrigation Company a right to divert water for direct application to beneficial use, but that right is provided in a different part of the decree and is measured in cubic feet per second (cfs), not acre-feet. Paragraph 21 of the decree dictates when that…