Great Oaks v. Santa Clara Valley Water Dist.

BACKGROUND

A. The District Act Prior to adoption of the District Act, the Santa Clara Valley was plagued by overdraft of the underlying groundwater basin, causing among other things the subsidence of land—with resulting disruption of roads and structures—and the intrusion of salt water into groundwater acquifers.1 A similar pattern marked much of the American settlement of California.2 Over the years the Legislature created numerous

1 According to a 1987 report submitted below by the District, “[g]roundwater pumpage increased from 40,000 acre-feet per year in 1915 to 180,000 acre-feet per year in 1960’s,” resulting in a lowering of the “artesian head” from “near ground surface” to some 150-200 feet in depth. “This drawdown caused a maximum of almost 13 feet of irreversible land subsidence in San Jose by 1969.” Saline groundwater, reflecting seawater intrusion, was detected near Palo Alto in 1910, and by 1987 extended east to Milpitas and “south along the Guadalupe River to the San Jose Municipal Airport.” 2 The casebooks, new and old, are full of dramatic examples of groundwater depletion. (See Pajaro Valley Water Mgmt. Agency v. Amrhein (2007) 150 Cal.App.4th 1364, 1370…