Beaumont officials will consider signing an agreement with the Morongo Band of Mission Indians today that would give the tribe a place to store imported water and give the city more water for proposed developments.

How the tribe would transport water from Northern California to Southern California isn't clear. Neither is the tribe's motivation in wanting to store up to 50,000 acre-feet of water in the Beaumont Groundwater Basin.
An acre-foot of water, the unit used to measure the resource, is equal to about 326,000 gallons.

The tribe doesn't need the water but wanted to assist a region that does -- the Pass, according to the public relations firm that represents Morongo.
The tribe also has been interested in buying the two East Valley Golf Club courses in Beaumont. But Michael Fisher with O'Reilly Public Relations said the water wouldn't be used for the courses.

 
David Dillon, Beaumont's economic development adviser, called the basin a critical part of the puzzle for the tribe in its efforts to transport water south.
In turn, the city could use more water for future developments.

The Cherry Valley Acres and Neighborhood group has filed lawsuits against large proposed developments in the Pass area, challenging contentions that the projects would have enough water to serve future residents.

Early last year, a judge ruled that plans for a proposed 3,000-home Legacy Highlands development in Beaumont didn't prove there would be enough water to support it, effectively shelving the project until the developer could show it had enough water.

In early 2008, a judge ruled that the city of Banning erred in approving a proposed 1,500-home development called Black Bench because it didn't sufficiently account for the available water supply.

The city of Beaumont had 30,000 acre-feet of available storage space in the basin as of a week ago. In the agreement, it would give 50 percent of that space to the tribe. The city would store the water for free and have the first right to buy the water from the tribe if the city wanted it.

Because the space is reserved for the city, it wouldn't need any approvals from the Beaumont Basin Watermaster, which divvies out water rights and manages the basin's resources. The city is a member of the Watermaster group.
The city and tribe plan to ask that group for more space so the tribe would have 50,000 acre-feet of storage in the future.

The agreement would also give the city high-quality water to fill the basin with -- so that the overall quality of the water, some of which is recycled, remains high.
The city is responsible for water quality in the basin. As long as quality remains high, the city can delay building a desalination plant.