Major water organizations express support for local agencies
Two major California water organizations expressedsupport today for a pair of local agencies that have been sued for water rightsby a local Indian tribe.
The Association of California Water Agencies and the Southern CaliforniaWater Committee are backing the Desert Water Agency and the Coachella ValleyWater District, who were sued in May by the Agua Caliente Band of CahuillaIndians.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Riverside, asks a judge todeclare the tribe’s rights to valley groundwater and prevent the Desert WaterAgency and Coachella Valley Water District from overdrawing and “degrading”the local water supply. The suit seeks a legal ruling on the tribe’s “priorand paramount reserved right to sufficient water underlying the CoachellaValley.”
The Association of California Water Agencies — considered the largeststatewide group of public water agencies in the country — sent a letter ofsupport to the local agencies, stating that the lawsuit “creates dangerousuncertainty for the residents and businesses of the region and does not advanceany public good.”
“Further, we worry that such a lawsuit could create a dangerousprecedent of moving toward adversarial relationships between tribes and localwater districts, when cooperative management of California’s water resourcesbest serves the entire population of California, including the tribalmembers,” the letter stated.
The Southern California Water Committee — which includes businesses,government representatives, agricultural groups, labor unions, environmentalgroups and water agencies — sent a letter to Agua Caliente tribal ChairmanJeff L. Grubbe, asking the tribe to end its lawsuit “to protect the bestinterests of the public and the Coachella Valley as a whole.”
The letter stated that the lawsuit creates uncertainty about “futurewater supply reliability, potential increases in customer rates and impacts tothe region’s recovery” and asked the tribe to work with the two agenciesthrough the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan “to chart the future forthe region’s water supply.”
In legal responses to the lawsuit, both agencies deny the tribe’s“aboriginal rights to the surface water and groundwater resources” in thevalley and have asked the tribe to drop the suit.
Grubbe said previously the tribe was asking the federal court to declarethe tribe’s water rights to “prevent the Desert Water Agency and theCoachella Valley Water District from continuing to overdraft the aquifer anddegrade the quality of existing groundwater,” adding that independentinvestigations have shown that local water is being depleted and polluted.
“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,”Grubbe alleged in an earlier statement. “The tribe has patiently attempted towork with CVWD and DWA to address these longstanding concerns, but to noavail.”
No hearings have been scheduled in the case, according to court records.
