Borror

This is a dispute between two water users over their respective rights to divert water from the upper Tule River in the foothills above Springville in southern Tulare County. The Pleasant Valley Canal Company (Pleasant Valley) is a mutual water company that distributes water to about 80 shareholders along an 8.3-mile ditch. The shareholders own approximately 1,400 acres which include fruit orchards, irrigated pasture, a private golf course, and a catfish pond. The Pleasant Valley Canal takes its water from the Middle Fork of the Tule River, downstream from a cattle ranch operated by the Borror family.

The Borrors own some 1,385 acres of land straddling both the Middle and North Forks of the river. For as long as anyone can remember, but at least since the family first moved there in 1930, the property has been used to graze cattle. Most of the cattle, numbering up to 600 head in the summertime, belong to other people who pay the Borrors a grazing fee. The land is generally steep, dry range land but includes about 225 acres of permanent pasture. The Borrors flood irrigate this pasture with water diverted from the Middle Fork through what is known as the Duncan Ditch,…