Tribe responds after agencies ask lawsuit over Valley’s water rights be dropped

Two Coachella Valley water agencies today asked theAgua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians to drop its lawsuit against them sothey can all work together “to chart a strong future for the region’s watersupply and economy,” but the tribe’s chairman called the request “absurd.”

The suit filed last month asks a federal court to declare the tribe’srights to valley groundwater and prevent the Desert Water Agency and CoachellaValley Water District from overdrawing and “degrading” the local watersupply.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Riverside, seeks a legalruling on the tribe’s “prior and paramount reserved right to sufficient waterunderlying the Coachella Valley.”

The two water agencies said in a joint statement that the suit would”take away the public’s rights to use Coachella Valley groundwater and preventthe public agencies’ delivery of water to their customers.” It would also stopthem from using the Colorado River water to recharge the Upper Coachella ValleyBasin, and pumping groundwater, according to the statement.

“We call on the tribe to end this costly and unnecessary litigation sowe can return to our ongoing discussions about how best to ensure the CoachellaValley will continue to have a safe, reliable and affordable water supply,’said Desert Water Agency board President Patricia Oygar. “Just the filing ofthis lawsuit is hurting the economy because it’s creating great uncertaintyabout future water supplies.”

Agua Caliente Chairman Jeff L. Grubbe said the agencies’ request to dropthe suit “simply to have audience with them is not only absurd and in badfaith but demonstrates the arrogance of these agencies.”

“We have long been open to constructive engagement and waited over ayear to bring our lawsuit in the hope the DWA and CVWD would come to thetable,” he said. “We continue to be open to discussions now. But let’s notforget the record here. The water districts steadfastly rejected our overturesto engage in discussions to resolve these issues.”

Grubbe alleged the suit would shed light on the agencies’ “long historyof mismanaging the valley’s water and their misplaced priorities when itcomes to how they use the money they derive from ratepayers.”

Oygar and Coachella Valley Water District board President John PowellJr. asked the tribe to work with the agencies through the Integrated RegionalWater Management Plan, a group of agencies and organizations that manages waterin the region.

“We are committed to working with the tribe, but it would beirresponsible for us to engage in discussions with a tribe whose pendinglawsuit and public relations campaign use scare tactics and makes falseaccusations in an attempt to take away the public’s water rights,” Powellsaid.

“While the tribe is not answerable to the public, DWA and CVWD arenonprofit public agencies that must serve the public interest and must act toprotect the public’s water rights, including the rights of the tribe,” hesaid.

According to the agencies’ statement, both have worked with the tribe inthe past on some of the issues raised in the lawsuit, which didn’t specifyhow much water it wants or what it would do with that water.

“It has no pipes, pumps or other infrastructure to deliver the water tocustomers. It has no expertise in water management,” according to thestatement.

Oygar said if the agencies had to buy water from the tribe, they’d haveto raise water rates to pay them. If the tribe didn’t sell water to them, theycouldn’t access some, or all, of the existing water supplies, she said.

Since 1973, the agencies have used Colorado River water exchanged forState Water Project water to replenish groundwater in the Whitewater River sub-basin of the Upper Coachella Valley Groundwater. And since 2002, they have usedriver water exchanged for water project water to replenish groundwater in theMission Creek sub-basin of the Upper Coachella Valley Groundwater Basin. Bothagencies said their water meets federal and state quality requirements.

The suit seeks to stop the two water agencies from “injuring the Tribeand its members by overdrafting the Upper Whitewater and Garnet Hill sub-basinsof the Coachella Valley Groundwater Basin aquifer and degrading the groundwaterquality.”

“Since at least the 1990s, the Agua Caliente and others haveaggressively urged the CVWD and DWA to take action to end the mismanagement,overdrafting and polluting of the aquifer underlying the Coachella Valley,”Agua Caliente Tribal Chairman Jeff L. Grubbe alleged last month. “The tribehas patiently attempted to work with CVWD and DWA to address these longstandingconcerns, but to no avail.”

A previous statement from the Agua Caliente tribe alleged that the wateragencies “have admitted to continually and imprudently overdrafting thegroundwater resources, causing significant environmental damage andjeopardizing the water future of all the valley’s residents.”

The districts import and do not substantially treat lower-quality waterfrom the Colorado River and inject that water into the aquifer at a facilityclose to tribal land. That water contains dissolved solids, nitrates,pesticides and other contaminants, according to the tribe.

“Thus, the groundwater in the Western Coachella Valley, including thewater below the Agua Caliente Reservation, which includes the cities of PalmSprings, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage and Thousand Palms, is being polluted ata faster rate than the aquifer down-valley,” the tribe alleged.

The tribe maintains it has the right to surface water and groundwater”sufficient to accomplish the purposes of the reservation” under federal law.It has been in the Coachella Valley “since time immemorial,” so its waterrights supersede others claimed under state law, according to the tribe.