Riverside County tribe and water districts settle rights dispute

LOS ANGELES (AP) A Riverside County Indian tribe and three water districts announced the tentative settlement of a 7-decade-old water rights dispute Thursday.

The deal, which requires final approval by Congress, would resolve a federal lawsuit by the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians and give the tribe $28 million, 127.7 acres of land and rights to 9,000 acre-feet of water a year.

The tribe has long complained that an aqueduct that passes near its reservation carrying Colorado River water to Southern California has dried up its land. Water seeps through the porous walls of the 13-mile Metropolitan Water District tunnel, draining creeks and wells.

The long-running dispute threatened to disrupt water supplies in the fast-growing San Jacinto Valley.

``The settlement is a win-win situation,'' said tribal attorney Karl E. Johnson. ``It's the product of a lot of hard work by so many people that manages to address the concerns and needs not only of the Soboba tribe, but of all the water users in a basin that is currently overdrafted.''

``Agreement on the principles of this tentative settlement represents an important step forward,'' MWD board Chairman Phillip J. Pace said in a statement.

Under the settlement the Sobobas would receive $17 million from the Eastern Municipal Water District and Lake Hemet Municipal Water District and $11 million from the federal government. Another $10 million in federal funds would be used to help construct a local groundwater recharge project.

The 800-member Soboba tribe has had water problems on its 5,000-acre reservation since white settlers started diverting water from the San Jacinto River in the 1880s. Ground water pumping further depleted the tribe's water and by 1910 tribal members were struggling to survive.

The Sobobas drilled wells but when the MWD built its 16-foot-high concrete tunnel in the 1930s new problems started.

The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a settlement through the 1940 and 1950s. A lawsuit from that period was settled in 1991 with the tribe receiving $12 million from the federal government, but the tribe still maintained it was losing water to MWD.

In 2000 the tribe sued in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeking an injunction requiring MWD to repair the tunnel, or payments for its losses over the decades. Tribal leaders and water district officials have been negotiating since then to reach the new agreement.

The settlement could mean that some tribal members who moved away because the land could not support development will return.

``This agreement would help foster economic and agricultural development, housing, and enhance the general health and welfare of the Soboba community,'' tribal chairman Robert Salgado said in a statement.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)