United States of America, and Cross-Appellee v. Fallbrook Public Utility District, and Cross-Appellants, State of California, Intervener

This action is brought by the United States to quiet title to its rights to the use of waters of the Santa Margarita River system in San Diego and Riverside counties, California. Those waters are used by the United States to supply the needs of a “Naval Enclave” consisting of Camp Pendleton (a Marine Corps training base), an ammunition depot, and a naval hospital. From final judgment entered by the District Court for the Southern District of California, Southern Division, the United States has taken this appeal. Its principal grievance is that it has been denied any right enforceable against upper users to continue in its diversion of a substantial portion of the waters which it uses to installations located within the Enclave but beyond the watershed of the river.

The Naval Enclave extends eastward from the Pacific Ocean and consists of some 135,000 acres of land acquired by the United States in 1942 and 1943, principally from the Rancho Santa Margarita and from public domain. Exclusive jurisdiction has been ceded to the United States by California.

The watershed of the Santa Margarita River includes some 742 square miles within San Diego and Riverside counties. The area is…