Water District ‘Stole’ Sand From U.S. Land, Suit Says

The U.S. Justice Department claims that the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District has “stolen” 2.9 million tons of sand and gravel from federal land over the last 20 years.

In a civil lawsuit filed in Los Angeles federal court against the water district, Assistant U.S. Atty. James Arnold, said:

“Under a license granted by the (federal) Bureau of Land Management, the district was allowed to create spreading basins on federal land so water would percolate down to the underground basin. But they had no right to then take the sand and gravel from the pond sites and sell it to a cement company.”

Suit Also Names Company

Also named as a defendant in the suit is Livingston Graham Inc., the company that Arnold said received the sand and gravel from the 80-acre site in the Redlands area.

Robert Hiltgen, secretary-manager of the water district, said he was dismayed by the suit and was worried that it would cost the district “a lot of money we can’t really afford.”

“We first got the license from the federal government to use this land for water conservation about 1909, and for the next 70 years we hardly heard from the Bureau of Land Management,” Hiltgen said. “All of a sudden, they show up and say we owe hundreds of thousands of dollars for sand and gravel.”

Just how much money is at stake in the lawsuit is not clear. Because of the statute of limitations, the government can only collect for sand and gravel taken during the last six years.

Question of Value

There also is the question of how much the sand and gravel are worth.

Arnold said the current “going rate” for a ton is $3.19. But Anton Dyck, vice president of Livingston Graham, said that is for “the finished product” used in making cement.

Hiltgen said the district is only charging “18 or 19 cents a ton” for the sand and gravel.

“That money sure came in handy given our limited ability to raise revenue through taxes,” Hiltgen said, “but now this lawsuit makes it look like tainted money that could have a price tag of its own.”