Tribe Signs Arrowhead Water Deal

MORONGO INDIAN RESERVATION, Calif. — Construction has begun on a $26-million Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water bottling plant on the Morongo Indian Reservation.

The economic venture will allow the Morongo tribe to diversify its economy beyond gaming through the sale of spring water to Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water, a subsidiary of Perrier Group of America. Perrier is the nation's largest water bottler, and its Arrowhead label, the leading seller in the West, is distributed throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest.

The arrangement helps the tribe diversify its economy, tribal chairman Maurice Lyons said. The tribe operates a casino and several small businesses along Interstate 10, 80 miles east of Los Angeles.

The reservation bottling facility will operate two production lines by summer, then expand to four lines and eventually to 10. When fully built, it will be the largest water-bottling plant in the United States, employing 260 workers.