Metropolitan

I.

Introduction

Plaintiff San Diego County Water Authority (San Diego) and several of the individuals it serves have sued the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan), its board of directors, and its 25 member public agencies for declaratory and injunctive relief, primarily challenging the validity and constitutionality of Metropolitan’s interpretation of section 109-135 of the Metropolitan Water District Act (72B West’s Ann. Wat. Code— Appen. (1995 ed.) § 109-135, p. 43) (section 135). Under section 135, in the event of a water supply shortage, each Metropolitan member public agency, including San Diego, has a preferential right to a percentage of Metropolitan’s available water supplies based on a legislatively established formula. That formula affords each member an aliquot preference equal to the ratio of that member’s total accumulated payments toward Metropolitan’s capital costs and operating expenses when compared to the total of all member agencies’ payments toward those costs, excluding amounts paid by the member for “purchase of water.”

San Diego argues that since a significant portion of Metropolitan’s water sales revenue goes toward…