Environmental Law Foundation v. State Water Resources Control Board
California Court of Appeals
26 Cal. App. 5th 844 (2018)
- Written by Curtis Parvin, JD
Facts
The State Water Resources Control Board (defendant), the County of Siskiyou (the county) (defendant), and the Environmental Law Foundation (the foundation) (plaintiff) jointly sought a judicial determination of whether the public-trust doctrine applied to groundwater extraction and, if so, whether the public-trust doctrine had been supplanted by California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The public resource at issue was the Scott River, a navigable waterway. The county argued that the public-trust doctrine did not apply to groundwater, which the county averred was subject only to a reasonable-use standard. The county asserted that even if the doctrine was applied generally, the comprehensive nature of the act had wholly supplanted the doctrine. The foundation argued the opposite. The trial court determined that the public-trust doctrine applied to groundwater extraction affecting the river. The appellate court agreed to consider the matter on the limited issues presented.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Raye, C.J.)
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