diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 73f9ece707d1..a639eb6b500c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 
+- Modified tilegrid creation to use index flag ESMF_INDEX_DELOCAL instead of ESMF_INDEX_USER
 - Renamed "geom" subdir and library to "field_utils"
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/base/MAPL_LocStreamMod.F90 b/base/MAPL_LocStreamMod.F90
index c5b8f927d954..d1623e6b263f 100644
--- a/base/MAPL_LocStreamMod.F90
+++ b/base/MAPL_LocStreamMod.F90
@@ -1541,6 +1541,9 @@ subroutine MAPL_LocStreamAttachGrid(LocStream, GRID, ISMINE, RC)
     JM_WORLD = DIMS(2)
    
     _ASSERT(IM_WORLD==TILING%IM,'needs informative message')
+    if (JM_WORLD/=TILING%JM) then
+       print *,'error tiling jm/jm ',jm_world, tiling%jm
+    end if
     _ASSERT(JM_WORLD==TILING%JM,'needs informative message')
     
 ! Find out which tiles are in local PE
@@ -1618,8 +1621,9 @@ subroutine MAPL_LocStreamCreateTileGrid(LocStream, GRID, RC)
     call ESMF_GridSet(tilegrid,  &
          name="tile_grid_"//trim(Stream%NAME)//'@'//trim(GNAME),    &
          distgrid=distgrid, & 
-         gridMemLBound=(/1/), &
-         indexFlag=ESMF_INDEX_USER, &
+!         gridMemLBound=(/1/), &
+!         indexFlag=ESMF_INDEX_USER, &
+         indexFlag=ESMF_INDEX_DELOCAL, &
          distDim = (/1/), &
          localArbIndexCount=arbIndexCount, &
          localArbIndex=arbIndex, &