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Indian reservation asks judge to determine their water entitlement; ruling could affect 6 water agencies & 2900 property owners

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 6:26 am

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

On the edge of a dirt road, Anthony Madrigal Jr. peers over the same sage-covered, boulder-strewn land that his Cahuilla ancestors have lived on for thousands of years. But it’s not the tribal land that’s got residents of Southwestern Riverside County so concerned as much as the water beneath it — and who will get the right to use it.

Cahuilla Creek, a mostly dry riverbed that snakes through the reservation near Anza, belies the amount of water in an aquifer below. Concerned that development in the area will draw on groundwater that belongs to them, the Cahuilla Band of Indians and a smaller nearby tribe asked a federal judge to establish just how much water they’re entitled to.

Although it is unclear what that amount will be, the tribes’ request comes at a time of drought and legal restrictions that have cut water supplies to the Inland region. The ruling could affect thousands of property owners and as many as six major water agencies across much of the 750-square-mile watershed of the Santa Margarita River that stretches from the Anza Valley to Camp Pendleton.

The tribes recently notified the agencies and some 2,900 property owners along the rural back roads of Anza, Aguanga and Sage to the vineyards and avocado groves of Temecula and beyond that they are being added as defendants in the decades-old court case.

Madrigal said tribal members want to legally define the amount of water they are entitled to so they have certainty and the necessary resources to live on their homeland for generations to come. “The tribe can’t sell the reservation. We don’t have the luxury of picking up and moving,” he said.

Some homeowners who are nervous about losing some of their water have formed groups to share legal fees and hire attorneys. The Anza-Aguanga Citizens for Water Rights already counts 1,700 members. The rural areas near the tribal reservations depend solely on local water supplies for drinking and to irrigate crops, and don’t have the infrastructure to import supplies like most urban areas.

“More than anything else, there is this honest fear they have their life savings in their home and they’ll be left without water,” said Jackie Spanley, who used to be an Anza Valley Municipal Advisory Council member and is organizing another citizens group.

Read the rest of this story from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise by clicking here.

May 29, 2008 · Filed Under Groundwater, Indian Water Rights, Riverside - San Bernardino