Ingersoll

Appellants E. R. Ingersoll and his wife appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court for the County of Yuba entered July 6, 1973, condemning an easement under and across their property for respondent Yuba County Water Agency for the purpose of constructing the Colgate Tunnel (a part of the Yuba River Project). On appeal, they do not contest the award of $100 compensation for the easement; rather they assert that the court erred in not awarding additional compensation for the value of material excavated from the tunnel and used by the respondent in the construction of the Yuba River Development.

The Yuba County Water Agency was established by the California Legislature in 1959 (West’s Wat. Code—App., § 84-1 et seq. [Deering’s Wat. Code, Act 9407]) to build the Bullard’s Bar dam and other facilities on the Yuba River. As part of that project, it was necessary to run a tunnel 24 feet in diameter and approximately four miles long from the dam to the Colgate Powerhouse through property owned by ‘appellants and others. The easement condemned under the property of appellants consisted of a strip of land 200 feet wide, a minimum of 800 feet below the surface for a distance of…