The latest skirmish in the water wars asks the cryptic question: When is water not really water?

The answer, it seems, is when words in an 83-year-old law – a law conceived long before the notion that recycled sewage was anything but disgusting – essentially negate its existence. Such is the root of the latest conflict between two Orange County water giants. The rich and powerful Irvine Ranch Water District is suing the lord and master of Orange County’s groundwater basin, the Orange County Water District.