It is anticipated that California Water Resources Board officials and lawyers with that agency will have fully examined documentation, water use records and historical litigation rulings contesting the propriety of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians ongoing diversion of water in the Bunker Hill Water Basin by September 12.
Based upon preliminary analyses conducted by a network of environmentalists and consumer advocates in the East San Bernardino Valley, arrangements by which the San Manuel Tribe has been utilizing water historically available from land in the foothills above Highland and San Bernardino did not include provisions for the quantity of water being taken to be quantified. That ran afoul of stipulations made in the settlement of lawsuits relating to water rights in the Bunker Hill Basin litigated more than nine decades ago and sustained in subsequent legal actions involving the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, extending to one legal action more than five decades ago that was settled in 1969. Those legal actions were resolved with or sustained restrictions on the use of that water which limit or prohibit its diversion during years of overdraft, that is, when more water is being taken out of the water table than is being replenished by rainfall.
In the early 1930s, the Del Rosa Mutual Water Company, which was a provider of water in and around San Bernardino, was represented by attorney Ralph Swing, in a major water rights lawsuit brought against D.J. Carpenter, Isabel Turner, George Mason, J.B. Jeffers, L.R. McKesson, the National Thrift Corporation of America, the National Thrift Corporation, California Consolidated Water Company and California Consumers Company, the Arrowhead Springs Company and Arrowhead Springs Corporation that was settled by a stipulation of those rights on October 19, 1931.
In the 1960s, both the Del Rosa Water Company and the City of San Bernardino, which had a 13.48 percent interest in the Del Rosa Water Company, were parties in another lawsuit relating to water use in the underlying Bunker Hill Basin. In 1969, that lawsuit was resolved pursuant to a judicial decision that permits local water purveyors to draft from the local aquifer in a manner that is deemed to be a responsible utilization of the regional water source, subject to restrictions in the event the water table is subject to overdrafting.
A condition of that settlement was the confirmation of a previously enforced requirement that all entities drawing water from the basin fill out, annually, California State Form 505 documents registering and recording water level readings. Based upon the data extrapolated from those documents, well owners, water pumpers and water purveyors could be limited in the amount of water they were taking or outright prohibited from drafting water from the Bunker Hill Basin altogether.
A Highland resident, Anthony Serrano, through an exhaustive archival examination, determined that the Del Rosa Mutual Water Company made regular annual Form 505 filings from January 13, 1960 through March 19, 1986 in compliance with the court settlement. From 1987 onward to date, Serrano has been unable to find in the archives evidence that either the company or its corporate successor made the required Form 505 filings.
Over the last 38 years, the San Manuel Tribe, through what was originally its Indian Bingo Parlor and is today the Yaamava’ Casino, has transformed itself into one of the region’s wealthiest entities as well as a major water consumer, thereafter increasing its water usage by more than an additional 100 acre-feet annually with the opening of the 17-story, 432-room hotel tower Yaamava’ Resort and Casino in 2021.
The Tribe had previously been utilizing water provided to it by the Nestlé Corporation, water which had come from tapping into the underground supply in Strawberry Canyon above the 5,000-foot elevation in the San Bernardino Mountains. Ultimately, action by the California Water Resources Board in issuing a cease and desist order to prevent Nestlé and its corporate successor, BlueTriton Brands from taking water out of Strawberry Canyon, restricted the tribe from using water high up in the San Bernardino Mountains. Consequently, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians increased its drafting of water at a lower elevation, at a level of 2,000-foot elevation and below, from East and West Twin Creeks, impacting the water level in the Bunker Hill Basin. The tribe’s efforts to obtain alternative water sources in preparation for its casino expansion included purchasing from the City of San Bernardino in January 2019 its 13.48 percent interest in the Del Rosa Mutal Water Company.
Serrano alerted the San Bernardino Valley Municipal
Water District’s about his research findings relating to the failure of the Del Rosa Mutual Water Company and its corporate successor to file the Form 505s and monitor their water use and its impact on the water table in the Bunker Hill Basin.
In his further research, Serrano learned from the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District by means of a report prepared at that agency by Assistant Engineer Laura Torres that the Bunker Hill Basin is in a state of deficiency, meaning no water can be diverted from it currently during the November to May timeframe.
Serrano made a provision of his findings to both Heather Dyer, the CEO/general manager of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District and Wen Huang, a licensed engineer and the chief operating officer and assistant general manager of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal District, making an inquiry as to who is responsible to make the “annual water level measurements” listed on pages 9 and 12 of the 1931 settlement document for the Superior Court of California County of San Bernardino Civil Court case brought by the Del Rosa Mutual Water Company against D.J. Carpenter, et al.
The San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District oversees the Bunker Hill Groundwater Basin in San Bernardino. The district manages the basin, which has an estimated capacity of 5 million acre-feet and serves approximately 600,000 residents in the East San Bernardino Valley.
Dyer was not aware who might be responsible for the “annual measurements.”
Huang indicated he believed it was the State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights which is the responsible party for accepting the “annual Form 505 filings” made by the Del Rosa Mutual Water Company or its successors. Serrano contacted lings” for FORM 505 Del Rosa Mutual Water Company for years 1987 to date and Ryan Spencer McLintock a water resource control engineer with the California Water Resources Control Board and Robert Cervantes, an engineer and program manager in the California Water Resources Control Board’s enforcement division, asking them to look into the existence of the Form 505 filings by the Del Rosa Mutual Water Company for years 1987 to date. He made other related inquiries regarding the need for water use monitoring in the Bunker Hill Basin, keeping Kenneth Petruzzeli, an attorney with the California Water Resources Control Board, in the loop.
It did not appear that the Form 505s relating to the water use in the Bunker Hill Basin had been filed, as they could not immediately be found.
On September 2, McLintock wrote back to Serrano, stating that he was not certain of who with the California Water Resources Control Board staff processes the Form 505s and that he was looking into it.
Yesterday, September 4, Serrano told the Sentinel he had received communication from Alexander Sweat, the acting supervisor of the Water Resources Control Board’s division of water rights, informing him that his staff would formulate responses with regard to Serrano’s questions about the tribe’s and other entities’ use of water that originated as the Del Rosa Mutual Water Company’s water use entitlements under the 1931 settlement.
“Division staff are currently researching files related to your request, Sweat wrote to Serrano. “We will contact you by Sep 12 to notify you of our findings.”
-Mark Gutglueck