Martin v. City of Linden

These consolidated appeals involve a dispute between a municipality and a landowner over the reasonable use of a common aquifer, or bed of groundwater, that lies beneath the property of both. The specific question is whether the City of Linden can drill a permanent well on a one-acre tract of land it owns outside its municipal limits, and pump the water by pipeline at an estimated rate of 700 gallons per minute or 500,000 gallons per day to the City, which is located approximately 15 miles from the site of the well, for use by its consumers. In addition to the issue whether the City should be…