ELR Citation: ELR 20191
No(s). C046211 (Cal. App. 3d Dist. Sep 8, 2006)

A California appellate court holds that the state water board abuses its discretion in imposing certain restrictions on an irrigation district's permit to appropriate water within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed but not on appropriators whose rights are junior to those of the irrigator. The restrictions require the irrigator to curtail its diversion of water when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation or the state water department are releasing stored water from certain water projects to meet water quality objectives in the Delta. The water board's action contravened the rule of priority because appropriators junior to the irrigator can divert water when it cannot. Although the rule of priority is not absolute, the board must protect water right priorities unless doing so would result in the unreasonable use of water, harm values protected by the public trust doctrine, or violate some other equally important principle or interest. Such is not the case here. The court, therefore, affirms a lower court order requiring the water board to set aside the restriction.