California’s Supreme Court is being pressed to take up a case that could dramatically alter oversight for groundwater, building on a landmark water rights ruling the court made a generation ago.
Earlier this summer, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled that rural Siskiyou County in Northern California must consider people downstream who depend on the Scott River before issuing permits to drill wells and pump groundwater nearby.
If the high court accepts the case and upholds that ruling, the result could be new controls on groundwater pumping — in addition to those contained in legislation just signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Lawyers note the case is particularly timely given the drought, which has forced many farmers to depend on ever more water pumped from underground. In effect, both sides want to skip a few steps in the appeals process, thereby speeding up a definitive answer from the state’s highest court.
At the heart of the case is the Scott River, which runs through Siskiyou County and feeds into the Klamath not far from the Oregon border.