The Save Our Forest Association sued the U.S. Forest Service for allowing BlueTriton Brands to illegally divert water from Strawberry Canyon in the San Bernardino National Forest without valid water rights. The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians intervened in the lawsuit to protect their water supply at the Arrowhead Springs Hotel, but their intervention backfired by exposing weaknesses in both their own and BlueTriton's water rights claims. The tribe's legal maneuvering has raised broader concerns that it may be quietly positioning to control a disproportionate share of the San Bernardino Valley's water supply.

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Key Highlights:

• California regulators determined BlueTriton Brands has no valid water rights to Strawberry Canyon water, yet the U.S. Forest Service continued issuing permits anyway.

• The San Manuel Tribe declined to participate in state water board hearings, then later tried to have the federal lawsuit dismissed entirely.

• Documents unearthed during litigation reveal the tribe has seven wells and 29 springs on its Arrowhead Springs property, undermining its claim of water dependency on BlueTriton.

• The fraud at the heart of the dispute traces back to a 1930 land deal in which a hotel owner transferred water rights he never legally possessed.

• If the tribe's pending land swap with the U.S. Forest Service is completed, it could gain control over water recharging an aquifer that supplies roughly 800,000 people.