Local water agencies request Supreme Court intervention over water dispute with Tribe

Two local water agencies that recently lost a federal court case granting Coachella Valley groundwater rights to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians announced Tuesday that they will request a U.S. Supreme Court review of the case, with hopes of a reversal of the lower court ruling.

The boards of the Coachella Valley Water District and Desert Water Agency plan to submit a formal request “early this summer” for a review of the March 7 appeals court ruling, which upheld a 2015 court decision backing the tribe’s claim to the groundwater aquifer managed by the agencies.

The dispute began when the tribe sued the agencies in 2013, with tribal officials claiming the agencies degraded water quality by overdrafting the aquifer, which depleted natural water levels, and then offset the amounts drawn with lower-quality water from the Colorado River.

“These practices are not acceptable for long-term health and viability of the Coachella Valley water supply,” Tribal Chairman Jeff L. Grubbe said following the appeals court ruling. “We called out this detrimental practice
and brought it to the attention of the water districts over and over for years but were repeatedly ignored.”

The agencies countered that the practice “has prevented groundwater levels from falling drastically, even as the valley has grown.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s 2015 decision, ruling that the creation of the tribe’s reservation in the 1870s included rights to the groundwater.

“Because the United States intended to reserve water when it established a home for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, we hold that the district court did not err in determining that the government reserved
appurtenant water sources — including groundwater — when it created the tribe’s reservation in the Coachella Valley,” the opinion reads.

That ruling left the agencies with a decision to either appeal to the nation’s high court or see the case returned to federal court, where it would be determined how the groundwater supplies are divided among water users.

The agencies say they remain uncertain over how the tribe plans to use the groundwater supplies, and that unlike the tribe, publicly elected water agency boards are held accountable to residents and bound by transparency requirements.

“We don’t know how much water the Agua Caliente want or what they would do with it, but they have said that they are an entrepreneurial organization,” said DWA board President James Cioffi. “CVWD and DWA serve but don’t own the water. We are stewards that manage local water openly and transparently without a profit.”

CVWD Board President John Powell said: “Granting control of the groundwater to the tribe could seriously affect the future of this valley. We represent the public and have been working to protect their supply for today
and tomorrow. It only makes sense to pursue an appeal on behalf of all the water users in the Coachella Valley.”