<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317028" dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060051141/print" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317259" class="">http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060051141/print</a><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317280"><br></div><div><br></div><header style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317133"><h2 style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-transform: uppercase; position: relative; color: rgb(0, 51, 102);" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317134">WATER RIGHTS</h2><h1 style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317135">Landmark ruling lets tribe tap Calif. aquifer </h1><section style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0.25em 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-weight: bold;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317136"><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317137"><a href="http://www.eenews.net/staff/Amanda_Reilly" style="vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); text-decoration: none;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317138">Amanda Reilly</a>, E&E News reporter</div><time datetime="2017-03-08 13:06:50 -0500" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317139">Greenwire: Wednesday, March 8, 2017</time></section></header><section style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317140"><section style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; counter-reset: list-header-num 0; max-width: none;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317141"><aside style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 1em 20px 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; float: none; max-width: 620px; width: 620px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317142"><img src="http://www.eenews.net/image_assets/2017/03/image_asset_16465.jpg" alt="Coachella Valley " style="background-color: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; width: 620px;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317143" class="" data-id="96751833-bfd3-deaa-a13c-817f24c7aad2"><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 3px 2px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317144">A federal court ruled that a tribe in California's arid Coachella Valley has rights to groundwater. <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317145">Photo courtesy of Max Pixel.</span></div></aside><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317146">A Native American tribe has a legal right to groundwater in Southern California's arid Coachella Valley, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled yesterday.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317147">When the United States established a reservation for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, it implicitly created a right to tap the water below, wrote Judge Charles Tallman for the three-judge panel.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317148">The ruling marks the first controlling opinion that the federal "reserved rights" doctrine applies to groundwater. The doctrine says that the United States intended to reserve water for tribes when it established reservations to the extent necessary to accomplish the purpose of the reservation.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317149">"Water is inherently tied to the Tribe's ability to live permanently on the reservation," wrote Tallman, a Republican appointee. "Without water, the underlying purpose — to establish a home and support an agrarian society — would be entirely defeated."</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317150">This is the first of three phases of litigation in the case. Future rulings will focus on whether the tribe has a right to a certain quality and quantity of groundwater.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317151">The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has lived in the Coachella Valley since before California became a state in 1850. The tribe's 31,396-acre reservation, laid out in a checkerboard pattern, was established by two executive orders in 1876 and 1877.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317152">Beneath the valley is an aquifer that supports nine cities, 400,000 people and 66,000 acres of farmland.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317153">The aquifer is the main source of water for the reservation, but the tribe doesn't directly pump water from the ground, purchasing it instead from state water agencies. While the reservation also receives some water from the nearby Whitewater River system, there is only enough surface water to irrigate 360 acres.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317154">Concerned about future availability of groundwater, the tribe filed the lawsuit at issue in 2013, asserting reserved rights and aboriginal rights to water from the aquifer.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317155">The federal government joined the suit in support of the tribe.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317156">The Coachella Valley Water District and Desert Water Agency argued that the tribe and United States were required to obtain water rights like any other private user under state water law.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317157">In yesterday's opinion, which upholds a district court decision, Tallman wrote that there is "no reason" to limit the reserved rights doctrine to surface waters.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317158">"The creation of the Agua Caliente Reservation therefore carried with it an implied right to use water from the Coachella Valley aquifer," the court concluded.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317159">Tallman noted that the doctrine — which also is known as the <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317160">Winters</em> doctrine — was in part established to provide sustainable land for Indian tribes whose reservations were located in arid parts of the country.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317161">The Coachella Valley receives no more than 6 inches of precipitation a year.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317162">"Survival is conditioned on access to water — and a reservation without an adequate source of surface water must be able to access groundwater," the judge wrote.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317163">Tallman also found that neither the tribe's lack of drilling for groundwater nor state law affected its rights to the groundwater.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317164">Ninth Circuit Judge Morgan Christen and district court Judge Matthew Kennelly, both Democratic appointees, joined the opinion.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317165">The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians cheered the ruling.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317166">"The Ninth Circuit's decision today validates the Tribe's work to protect and preserve the Coachella Valley's most important natural resource," tribal Chairman Jeff Grubbe said in a statement. "This is another critical step toward how water will be responsibly managed in the future."</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317167">The Coachella Valley Water District has defended its management of the aquifer and warned that giving the tribe groundwater rights could force substantial cutbacks in water to other customers.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317168">The district yesterday said that it is reviewing the court's decision.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317169">"The CVWD board will discuss next steps in this case that could ultimately determine control over the region's groundwater," General Manager Jim Barrett said in a statement.</div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317170"><a href="http://www.eenews.net/assets/2017/03/08/document_gw_03.pdf" style="vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317171">Click here</a> to read the court's opinion.</div></section><section style="background-color: transparent; border-width: 2px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-color: rgb(152, 177, 203); margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(85, 85, 85);" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317172"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317173">Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/apeterka" style="vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317174">@apeterka</a></span> <span style="background-color: transparent; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.65em; vertical-align: baseline;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317175">Email: <a href="mailto:areilly@eenews.net" style="vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317176">areilly@eenews.net</a></span></section></section><div class="signature" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1488940690928_317027"><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>