Casino Plans On Hold Due To Water Agreement
An Indian tribe has backed off of plans to build a casino and hotel along one of the most crowded roads in central Riverside County, saying it places higher value on the water rights it is gaining in a sort of exchange. The Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians agreed last month to drop a six-year-old lawsuit against the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District. The agreement calls for Metropolitan and the Perris-based Eastern Municipal Water District to provide the Sobobas with 7,500 acre-feet of water a year for at least the next 30 years.
That annual total is equal to about 2.5 billion gallons, or the amount used by 15,000 typical urban families in Southern California. The tribe's lawsuit alleged that a Metropolitan aqueduct drains ground water from under Soboba land, water that rightfully belonged to the tribe. Though the tribe filed the suit in 2000, its grievances go back a century to the late 1800s, when white settlers first began to drill wells and build reservoirs in the area. Metropolitan's involvement dates to the 1930s, when it built a tunnel through the San Jacinto mountains to bring Colorado River water to coastal cities.
June 15, 2006
Posted By Bob Hartman
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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