800 SLO County Landowners Win Fight Against Water Districts, Keep 90% of Basin
Judge confirms right to use Paso Robles groundwater without fees.
Sacramento procedure is often slow, but a San Luis Obispo County judge delivered a decisive blow to bureaucratic overreach Thursday. A quiet title lawsuit victory for over 800 residents confirms their right to use the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin. According to the ruling, water districts can no longer force these plaintiffs to pay fees or taxes for groundwater.
The legal battle began in 2013. The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors enacted an emergency ordinance. They limited landowner pumping to fixed amounts despite a lack of legal finding regarding an overdraft. Government agencies can usually only restrict pumping during severe depletion. The plaintiffs argued they should not be penalized for normal usage.
More than 800 property owners organized under the name Protect Our Water Rights. They asserted that owning land includes the right to pump water reasonably. The defendants were powerful entities. They included SLO County, the City of Paso Robles, San Miguel Community Services District, Templeton Community Services District and Atascadero Mutual Water District. The landowners filed a lawsuit in 2014 to confirm these rights in court.
The legal process dragged on with five trials and 21 affirmative defenses. The court eventually broke the water rights down. The landowners retained the priority right to pump 90,000 acre feet of water a year. The districts won the right to pump slightly more than 2,000 acre feet annually from the basin's 92,000 acre feet safe yield based on the facts.
This ruling protects the bottom line for these landowners. It stops agencies from charging for a resource that sits beneath private property. The victory confirms that local control does not equate to unlimited authority over water resources. It sets a clear standard for hydrological rights in the region.
First reported by CalCoast News.
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