Millview Co. Water Dist. v. State Water Resources Control Bd.

I. BACKGROUND

California maintains a “dual system” of water rights, which distinguishes between the rights of “riparian” users, those who possess water rights by virtue of owning the land by or through which flowing water passes, and “appropriators,” those who hold the right to divert such water for use on noncontiguous lands. (El Dorado Irrigation Dist. v. State Water Resources Control Bd. (2006) 142 Cal.App.4th 937, 961.) Riparian users and appropriators whose claims were staked before December 1914 need neither a permit nor other governmental authorization to exercise their water rights. (California Farm Bureau Federation v. State Water Resources Control Bd. (2011) 51 Cal.4th 421, 428–429.) While there is no predetermined limit on the amount of water an individual riparian user may divert (Phelps v. Water Resources Control Bd. (2007) 157 Cal.App.4th 89, 116, 118–119), appropriators may divert only so much water as is authorized by their particular water right, assuming the claim was properly perfected by the original claimant (Pleasant Valley Canal Co. v. Borror (1998) 61 Cal.App.4th 742, 776). In 1998, Hill and Gomes acquired a 33.88-acre parcel of land adjoining the Russian…