Ak-Chin Community asks judge to dismiss water countersuit
The Ak-Chin Indian Community is asking a federal judge to throw out a counterclaim by a local irrigation district in the tribe’s lawsuit on water quality stating that it did not waive its sovereign immunity when it filed the lawsuit.
The tribe is also asking the judge to strike the irrigation district’s claims for attorney fees and a jury trial.
According to U.S. District Court of Arizona records, the Ak-Chin Indian Community filed a lawsuit in March claiming that the Central Arizona Irrigation and Drainage District and the Maricopa-Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District were degrading the quality of Central Arizona Project water that the tribe is entitled to receive by pumping poor quality groundwater into the CAP via the Santa Rosa Canal.
