Great Oaks Water Co. v. Santa Clara Valley Water Dist.

*1197 Plaintiff Great Oaks Water Company (Great Oaks), a water retailer, brought this action challenging a groundwater extraction fee imposed on water it draws from wells on its property. The power to impose such a fee is vested in defendant Santa Clara Valley Water Management District (the District), under the Santa Clara Valley Water District Act (Stats. 1951, ch. 1405, pp. 3336 et seq., West's Ann. Wat.-Appen. (1999 ed.) ch. 60, pp. 354 et seq.) (District Act or the Act). Among the District's major responsibilities is preventing depletion of the acquifers from which Great Oaks extracts the water it sells. The trial court awarded a complete refund of the charges paid by Great Oaks, and in the alternative a partial refund, on the grounds that the charge violated the provisions of both the District Act and Article XIII D of the California Constitution (Article 13D), which imposes procedural and substantive constraints on fees and charges imposed by local public entities. We hold that (1) the fee is a property-related charge for purposes of Article 13D, and thus subject to some of the constraints of that enactment; (2) however, it is also a charge for water service, and as such…