EAST COUNTY – The Sycuan Indian band has decided that wells the tribe has long relied upon aren't the answer to its long-term water needs.
Sycuan, which is planning to double the size of its casino and build a new resort hotel east of El Cajon, wants to annex its reservation to the nearby Otay Water District.
That will allow the tribe to tap into water from the Colorado River and Northern California, like the rest of San Diego County.
Neighbors, who sometimes have clashed with the tribe over development issues, are in favor.
Adam Day, assistant tribal manager, said a big problem for the tribe is the quality of water from wells on the reservation.
“We've had to develop a pretty sophisticated nitrate-removal system,” he said.
Most San Diego County Indian reservations – Sycuan included – aren't within water districts and rely on well water.
That's often a problem for neighbors who bring up the effect on the water table whenever a casino or related project is proposed.
Some neighbors of the Barona reservation, for instance, say their wells went dry after that casino resort's golf course opened.
So far, the Sycuan proposal hasn't generated much opposition, said Pat Riggs, president of the Dehesa Valley Community Council.
“Sycuan uses a lot of water on their casino, and it's all groundwater,” she said. “It would be best for the community that they get a source of water other than groundwater.”
Riggs said her community planning group will probably support the annexation, even though the group has clashed with the tribe on other issues.
The Sycuan move comes just after the neighboring Padre Dam Water District finished building a $5 million pipeline along Harbison Canyon to the reservation. The tribe paid the cost.
It wasn't until after the Padre Dam pipeline construction was under way that the tribe decided to seek annexation to the Otay district.
The tribe now hopes to have Otay extend a pipeline along Dehesa Road, Day said.
The Padre Dam pipeline will continue to serve a residential area the tribe owns near its reservation. The reservation is adjacent to both districts.
Serving reservations can be tricky for water districts. Tribes, by law, can't be sued without their permission, said Thomas D. Cumpston, attorney for the El Dorado Irrigation District in Placer County.
That can take away the teeth of a district's regulations, he said, adding, “Can we make them conserve during a drought?”
Before agreeing to supply water to a casino under construction on a reservation between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, Cumpston's district made a deal with the tribe, which agreed to go to court if it didn't follow the district's rules.
Mark Watton, the Otay Water District's general manager, said he has had similar discussions with Sycuan and doesn't think the issue will stop the proposal.
“Ultimately, Otay owns the meter,” he said. “I don't know that they would divorce themselves from the imported-water supply.”
In San Diego County, water districts buy water from the Colorado River and Northern California and sell it to residents, businesses, growers and other customers. They also run large sewage-treatment plants.
In order to buy water or send sewage from its reservation to outside treatment, Sycuan will have to go through a years-long process to get its original mile-square reservation annexed into a neighboring water district.
The tribe, which operates a 2,000-slot casino, decided to annex the reservation to Otay because much of the off-reservation property it owns is already within that district's boundaries, Day said.
Sycuan is also asking to expand sewer service to much of that land, which it plans to add to its reservation.
Any changes would require a thorough environmental review, Watton said.
Approval of the annexation would be required from the Otay and Padre Dam districts, the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission, the San Diego County Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Onell Soto: (619) 593-4958; onell.soto@uniontrib.com
