 The structure was rebuilt at a cost of $90,000.In 1928 Gin Chow, who owned a farm on the Santa Ynez River, sued the city of Santa Barbara challenging its right to divert water from Gibraltar Reservoir, and soon 39 other farmers in the Santa Ynez Valley signed on to the case.Chow's demand was based upon the doctrine of riparian water rights in which existing landowners along a river have the right to the full, unimpaired flow of the stream through their property regardless of how or whether they use it.