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Readers React: Golf courses in the Coachella Valley? Absurd.

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To the editor: The Agua Caliente Indians understandably are trying to get a voice in the use of the water under their reservation — which was established in 1876, well before current uses of water in the Coachella Valley began. The Coachella Valley Water District and the Desert Water Agency claim that the reservation has no such rights. When were these agencies formed? (“Tribe fights Coachella Valley water agencies for aquifer rights,” March 31)

Then we read that the two agencies, newcomers on the block, are overdrawing from the underlying basin, a currently common practice all over California and indeed all over the country.

And in the middle of the article, this: “The water goes to 120 golf courses that suck up 37 billion gallons annually.”

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Is the absurdity of this use not patently obvious?

Paul Cooley, Culver City

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To the editor: The article on the Agua Caliente tribe’s ongoing litigation with the Coachella Valley’s two main water agencies was most interesting.

What often goes unaddressed in articles on this situation is what impact the very large bottling plant to the west of the water district’s percolation ponds has on the diminishing aquifer.

Seen from Interstate 10, the bottling plant south of the freeway and west of the California 111 turnoff appears to humming along. Might the bottling of water otherwise flowing into the percolation ponds have some part in the diminishing aquifer?

John Butler, Palm Springs

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