I read the article " Santa Barbara Seals 50-Year Deal to Sell Water to Montecito ," which was a nice piece of work, thank you!
As a lifelong environmentalist, I feel that all students and residents in the Western States (Nebraska on westward) should read Cadillac Desert (1986) by Marc Reisner. His book talks about how water is everything in the West and how politics and land schemes have influenced where and who gets water and at what price. The negative environmental impacts of all the various water projects (e.g., California State Water Project) are staggering! Furthermore, people are inherently selfish which shows in the riparian rights (established during the 1849 Gold Rush) and the drilling of private wells into aquifers.
The California Water Board indicates that no one can own the water itself, but one has the right to use it on one’s property. Here is a direct quote from the Water Board's website describing Ground Water Rights :