114 STAT. 2907PUBLIC LAW 106–568—DEC. 27, 2000
(2) Between 1905 and 1907, flood waters of the Colorado
River filled the Salton Sink, creating the Salton Sea, inundating
approximately 2,000 acres of the 1891 reservation lands.
(3) In 1909, an additional 12,000 acres of land, 9,000 of
which were then submerged under the Salton Sea, were added
to the reservation under a Secretarial Order issued pursuant
to a 1907 amendment of the Mission Indian Relief Act. Due
to receding water levels in the Salton Sea through the process
of evaporation, at the time of the 1909 enlargement of the
reservation, there were some expectations that the Salton Sea
would recede within a period of 25 years.
(4) Through the present day, the majority of the lands
added to the reservation in 1909 remain inundated due in
part to the flowage of natural runoff and drainage water from
the irrigation systems of the Imperial, Coachella, and Mexicali
Valleys into the Salton Sea.
(5) In addition to those lands that are inundated, there
are also tribal and individual Indian lands located on the perim-
eter of the Salton Sea that are not currently irrigable due
to lack of proper drainage.
(6) In 1982, the United States brought an action in trespass
entitled ‘‘United States of America, in its own right and on
behalf of Torres-Martinez Band of Mission Indians and the
Allottees therein v. the Imperial Irrigation District and
Coachella Valley Water District’’, Case No. 82–1790 K (M)
(hereafter in this section referred to as the ‘‘U.S. Suit’’) on
behalf of the Torres-Martinez Indian Tribe and affected Indian
allottees against the two water districts seeking damages
related to the inundation of tribal- and allottee-owned lands
and injunctive relief to prevent future discharge of water on
such lands.
(7) On August 20, 1992, the Federal District Court for
the Southern District of California entered a judgment in the
U.S. Suit requiring the Coachella Valley Water District to
pay $212,908.41 in past and future damages and the Imperial
Irrigation District to pay $2,795,694.33 in past and future
damages in lieu of the United States request for a permanent
injunction against continued flooding of the submerged lands.
(8) The United States, the Coachella Valley Water District,
and the Imperial Irrigation District have filed notices of appeal
with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
from the district court’s judgment in the U.S. Suit (Nos. 93–
55389, 93–55398, and 93–55402), and the Tribe has filed a
notice of appeal from the district court’s denial of its motion
to intervene as a matter of right (No. 92–55129).
(9) The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has stayed
further action on the appeals pending the outcome of settlement
negotiations.
(10) In 1991, the Tribe brought its own lawsuit, Torres-
Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, et al., v. Imperial Irrigation
District, et al., Case No. 91–1670 J (LSP) (hereafter in this
section referred to as the ‘‘Indian Suit’’) in the United States
District Court, Southern District of California, against the two
water districts, and amended the complaint to include as a
plaintiff, Mary Resvaloso, in her own right, and as class rep-
resentative of all other affected Indian allotment owners.
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