After decades of fighting for water rights in the San Jacinto Valley, the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians has reached a tentative agreement with water agencies that involves land, cash and more than a billion gallons of water per year.
The proposed settlement of a 3-year-old lawsuit announced Thursday involves the tribe, the Metropolitan Water District, the Eastern Municipal Water District and the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District.

"It's been a long battle, and I've worked on it for the last 20 years," Tribal Chairman Robert Salgado said Thursday, adding that much of the foundation of the legal fight was laid by tribal elders decades earlier. "When you deal with the government, it's pretty slow. It's like eating turtle soup all the time."

The settlement
The tentative agreement gives the tribe $28 million, 127.7 acres of Winchester land off Highway 79 and Domenigoni Parkway near Diamond Valley Lake, and up to 4,100 acre-feet of water a year, translating to about 1.33 billion gallons. The water would be able to service about 8,200 households. There are 275 homes on the reservation. The tribe uses about 2,000 acre-feet of water a year, said Tony Pack, general manager of the Eastern Municipal Water District.
After 50 years, the tribe's water rights will increase to 9,000 acre-feet annually. An acre-foot of water costs about $325, MWD spokesman Bob Muir said. The tribe is not allowed to sell any of that water.

 
While water concerns surfaced in the 1880s when settlers began building dams upstream on the San Jacinto River, the lawsuit's settlement would end a bitter struggle with water agencies that began with the construction of the San Jacinto Tunnel in the 1930s. The tunnel transports water through the San Jacinto mountains as a part of Metropolitan's Colorado River Aqueduct.

 
The tribe argued the tunnel intersected underground faults in the San Jacinto mountains that released into the tunnel water that normally fed to numerous creeks, streams and springs on the reservation. Leaks in the 13-mile tunnel over the years further cut into the tribe's water supply, tribal members said.
"It was a man-made drought for us and we had to go through a lot of hardships because of it," Salgado said.

The water loss stunted agricultural and residential development, he said.
Tribal members and board members of each water agency must approve the tentative agreement before the matter can be sent to Congress for approval. Salgado said the tribe will vote sometime in the next three weeks and expects the deal to be approved.

The tribe and the water agencies hope to finalize the settlement by late summer or early fall, tribal attorney Karl Johnson said. Water officials expect it will take several months before the settlement is enacted. Congress has to approve the settlement, and appropriate the federal funds tied into it.

The tribe had sought about $100 million for water loss attributed to years of sale of tribal water and leaks at the San Jacinto Tunnel that drained much of the water supply from the reservation.

Looking ahead
Tribal attorney Karl Johnson said the restructured deal, which was forged in Las Vegas in December, benefits all parties involved in the issue.
"I certainly don't like spending the money, but it was something that had to be done. The benefits to all in the long term far outweigh the costs," Pack said. "For the community to continue to grow, it's essential that we maintain and increase water production."

Although the 127.7 acres of land on two parcels in Winchester is about 12 miles from the reservation, Salgado said the deal was a good one for the tribe.
Long-term plans for the area include retail stores and possibly an outlet mall. There are no plans to try to build a casino there, Salgado said.
Metropolitan and Eastern would transfer 21.7 acres and 106 acres, respectively, to the tribe. Pack said Eastern valued its land at about $20 million. Metropolitan general counsel Jeff Kightlinger said the agency paid about $250,000 for its land, which was bought before the reservoir was built and has not been recently appraised.

Of the $28 million the tribe is to receive, the federal government would contribute $11 million to develop water infrastructure. Another $17 million would come from the Lake Hemet and Eastern Municipal water districts.

In 1991, the tribe won a $12 million lawsuit, alleging that the federal government did not do its part to protect the water rights of the Soboba Indians.

Reach Han Kwak at (909) 763-3456 or hkwak@pe.com