BY TRIBAL BUSINESS NEWS STAFF

A publicly traded company announced Tuesday that it has secured $51 million in financing from Lytton Rancheria of California, marking the first tribal investment in the Mojave Groundwater Bank, a water supply and groundwater storage project planned as the largest groundwater bank in the Southwest.

Cadiz Inc., a Los Angeles-based water solutions company, reported it is raising the capital through Mojave Water Infrastructure Company LLC, a special-purpose entity formed to construct, own and operate the project. The federally recognized tribe’s investment represents the first tranche of approximately $450 million in total equity capital the company is raising for the project.

The company, along with Fenner Gap Mutual Water Company and the Fenner Valley Water Authority, will partner with Native American tribes, public agencies and water districts to build what it describes as the first large-scale, tribal-owned water infrastructure project off tribal lands in U.S. history, according to the Cadiz website.