Adam

This is the second appeal concerning the rights to groundwater contained in the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin (Basin). Appellants land owner group parties (LOG) are a group of landowners, mostly farmers, who extract groundwater for agricultural use. Respondents are public water producers that pump groundwater for municipal and industrial use for their citizens and customers. In the first appeal, City of Santa Maria v. Adam (2012) 211 Cal.App.4th 266 [ 149 Cal.Rptr.3d 491 ] (City of Santa Maria), we reversed and remanded the matter with instructions, directing the trial court to quiet title to appellants’ overlying rights to native groundwater by declaring that these rights have priority over all appropriated, less the amount that respondents are entitled to pursuant to their prescriptive rights. We further directed the trial court to reconsider, if necessary, the prevailing party determination and allocation of costs.

The trial court amended its judgment by asserting that appellants’ overlying rights to the Basin groundwater are “prior and paramount to any existing or future appropriative rights to the Basin groundwater” (italics omitted), but are “subject to the…