Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You have to look at the terms of the deed. An easement merely is the right to travel over a certain protion of land. The right to subsurface water or minerials is separate and would have to be spelled out in some document.

I would agree with Mr. Shers that the express terms of the deed granting the easement are the primary source from which we must deduce what rights the easement holder has. However, if the grant of easement is unclear or ambiguous, the intent of the parties at the time of the grant might be found by looking at the physical conditions that existed at the time of the grant. Was the water well connected by pipe to the easement holder's property (the so-called "dominant tenement")? If there was an electric pump set up to raise water, who furnishes the electricity? Does the easement agreement make the dominant tenement responsible for maintenance of the well, pump and pipeline? In the absence of more information, I'd say the easement likely includes the right to draw water. Further, as I understand water rights, underground percolating ground water is not the property of the owner of the surface of the land; it is owned by the state until it is appropriated by a private party for beneficial use.