By Don A. Wright
The Tulare Irrigation District held its Tuesday, January 13, 2026 board of directors meeting at its oft fog shrouded headquarters west of town. And on Zoom. Before the meeting began General Manager Aaron Fukuda announced per the new Brown Act provisions everyone online or by phone must identify themselves and their affiliation to remain on the Zoom. That requirement thinned the herd considerable. You’ll have to begin attending in person or identifying yourself from now on.
The Meeting
Chairman David Bixler called the meet to order 9:08am, a little late due to weeding out the non-humans. There were no public comments as I was the only living human member of the online public. The minutes were approved.
Water Report
Water Master Marco Crenshaw reported Terminus Dam on the Kaweah River has been releasing 800 cfs since around Christmas. There’s 36,000 a/f in storage at the moment and the goal is to reduce it by 6,000 a/f for flood control.
Crenshaw said planned upstream releases from Millerton Lake on the San Joaquin River added to the Class II supplies from the Friant Kern Canal. Fukuda said this caused some shuffling for TID. Crenshaw said they were directing the flows to the basins but the demand has gone up. Fukuda said the five percent Class II uncontrolled must be used by January 31st. He said usage in the district has gone up since the new SGMA world. In the past they would have filled the basins and the canals.
Director Rick Borges said the fields are drinking it up and that is best way to recharge. Fukuda said building the upper aquifer is the best way to hedge against SGMA and he hopes more farmers will take water this time of year. Also, Millerton’s flood level is getting close, like 20,000 a/f from releases so you don’t want to lose this water to spill.
Crenshaw put up some charts with graph lines so squiggly Director Dave Martin said it looked like his signature. The inflow lines on Kaweah and Millerton were packed with up and down variables. He said there are only two snow sensors on the Kaweah River and it’s below average at 45 percent. He believes it’s much higher. The San Joaquin River has many more sensors and it’s showing close to 90 percent of normal. As of now there appears to be a total supply of 30,000 a/f in storage for TID.
That raises the question of how to allocate this as fairly as possible. Fukuda recommended stretching out the deliveries to target demand as far out into the future as possible. He’d like to see the City of Tulare basins filled and send the Unreleased Restoration Flows (which have an end of February deadline for usage) and other surface supplies to the growers’ demands.
Crenshaw recommended the board revisit policy for winter deliveries as there is a lot of water available earlier in the year. He also said the district got through the October/November maintenance season. Fukuda said the district fills its needs first, then the City of Tulare, then the City of Visalia.
The rainfall since the water year began at the end of September, beginning of October has included four large storms. He said at his house the rain gage has doubled for this time of year. Fukuda said he and Martin were trading photos of their driveway pools. He said his sons enjoyed the mud for two weeks.
The SJR recapture is about 30,000 a/f and after banking they get half back at a cost of $400 per a/f. This price and exchange rate is within bounds. However, the winter rate for TID supplies is $53 per a/f and that will remain. There wasn’t as much snow in the northern Sierra due to the warmer atmospheric flow.
O&M Report
Next Fukuda gave the operations and maintenance report for Superintendent Wayne Fox, who isn’t feeling well. Martin said Fox is tough, if he’s sick in bed, he’s sick. Fukuda said safety training, weeding and mosquito control have all been addressed. Crews have been bull dozing homeless camps, no I got that wrong. They’ve been grading the bottom of the canals with bulldozers. The trash from the homeless is removed in a legal manner, safe and humane. It was said most of the mosquito larvae grow in the weeds, so weed control is a twofer. Also, they are maintaining all the equipment.
Finances
Fukuda also got to cover the financials for Kathi Artis saying she’s out of town. Fukuda explained the invoicing is tricky part of the time because the water year is October to September, the contracting year is March to February, and the calendar year is of course January to December. He shared the books with everyone and last year balanced.
One other hiccup is last year’s federal government shutdown. While I’m OK with less government in concept it did slow down a bunch of paperwork. The US Bureau of Reclamation is valiantly playing catch up on some of the reports needed to finalize grants. I don’t know how but this discussion morphed into a new well and septic tank for the office. If I understand they are talking about a compression sleeve for the well. This is because they’ve had trouble with the well. The casing was too light a gauge and they need one of those couplings that slide up and down to adjust for subsidence.
Back to finances – TID’s investments are doing well as are all the various bookkeeping accounts. The total equity (the good use of the word) is about $40 million. Fukuda told the board if they have any questions ask Artis when she gets back. I did hear Valley Strong Credit Union is a good deal. Also, water rights fees ($260,000 up from $80,000 from 20-years ago) are no longer paid to the State Board but a new office in the Francise Tax Board. Fukuda singled out State Board staffer Eric Ekdahl saying in his discussions he believes Ekdahl is standing fast in protecting existing water rights. Good to know and good for him.
Also under finances Fukuda praised staff for their public relations skills and diligent work to reduce the unpaid assessments. He thanked a lady named Teressa for her work. The overdue assessments are way down.
Engineering Report
Next Assistant Engineer George Munoz gave the engineering report saying the Liberty Hill Phase II pipeline is almost complete. Fukuda said the contractors have had challenges since they chose to delay starting construction until it started raining. However, they did do a great job and used a very expensive pipe material.
The Union Pacific Railroad replaced a culvert and they didn’t mess around. They drove pilings, strategically placed rip rap and some heavy duty 48” culvert pipe. There were a few other wonderful project and photos presented.
Management Reports
Management and staff reports were next and that started with the Kaweah Subbasin SGMA matters. There are three Groundwater Sustainability Agencies in the Subbasin: Eastern
Kaweah, Greater Kaweah and Mid Kaweah GSAs. The subbasin is now back in the hands of DWR and no longer the tender mercies of the State Board. The first meeting will be January 14th so things are moving fast. The Groundwater Sustainability Plan had to be uploaded to the SGMA portal again and that opened a 30-day comment window. The fall water quality readings are back and almost all of the problems are legacy, no new problems. New sensors are being installed. Nothing new on subsidence and the Groundwater Sustainability Agency managers will start meeting to work out new allocations. The well registration program is up and running. Staff is working with landowners on the registration process and things are moving much better.
The MID Kaweah executive team is in place. There is a funding strategy taking place. The Collaborative Action Plan is helping. Kyle Jones, is a consultant from Sacramento and he’s helping both the Mid Kaweah and East Kaweah find funding and there is already traction for next year’s funding. Fukuda said Jones is a lot like consultant Austin Ewell but instead of the federal side, Jones works the state side of the gooberment coin.
One result of the well registration requirement is if you want an allocation you have to have a registered well. He doesn’t expect this to go over well.
They are also trying to implement a daily Evapotranspiration model for $.60 per acre using the always excellent Land IQ. These guys are rocket surgeons.
Friant Matters
Fukuda said Friant’s Katie Duncan and Ian Buck-Macleod have been doing some incredible work. There are Golden Mussels in the Arvin Edison system. The mussels stick to floating garbage such as plastic bottles. The danger is getting the mussels in pipelines. High temperature pressure washing with hot water or high concentration copper sulfate are the current treatment regimen. Fukuda said once the mussel is in the system they breed like crazy. Borges, also chairman of Friant, commented if they get in the pumps moving water over the Tehachapi Mountains into the Los Angeles Basin . . . Really bad news.
Legislation
Fukuda said the governor’s budget is $348.9 billion with a $18 billion projected deficit. Fukuda asked a very good question; Why can’t California put aside $3 billion in water annually? This instead of always waiting for a crisis and issuing a bond where half of the value goes who knows where? Amen brother. I’ve always wondered how much money would be available to do the work if the government wasn’t charging for bonds and grant administration.
GM Report
Fukuda had to speak with the Grand Jury and he said TID wasn’t in trouble. The Grand Jury just wanted to understand SGMA. He’s been invited to speak at a coastal small farmer conference about the future of farming and SGMA. It won’t be a pretty discussion. He’s also on a new ACWA committee about the future of water and there is the Water Users Conference at the end of the month. He said he still has PTSD due to last year’s reservoir dump during the conference.
Fukuda said he spoke with a reporter and was able to explain to her the realities of farming as a business. Farmers are price takers and not price makers.
Action Items
This next part of the meeting was about items requiring a vote from the board. The first item was to approve the appointments of a Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Financial Officer for the Tulare Visalia Water Authority which is a Joint Powers Authority between the MKGSA and Tulare ID. Somehow or other the City of Visalia is involved. Fukuda will be CEO and Artis will be the CFO. They will retain their positions with the district. The board approved.
Resolution Number 26-01, first of the year, is a list of all the outside board appointments and proxies TID is involved in. Such as the Mid Kaweah GSA, Friant Water Authority and ACWA JPIA to name some. Since it was a resolution there was a unanimous roll call vote in favor of the existing appointments.
Resolution Number 26-02 to enter into a 215 Contract with the US Bureau of Reclamation was also unanimously passed by roll call.
The 2026 Preliminary Budget was the next item. It is banking on a total water supply of 150,000 a/f this year with a 100 percent Class one allocation. A $5 million revenue on water operations is projected. There is a need to move more recharge closer into the City of Tulare as it’s sucking from growers on certain sides. There needs to be a change and Fukuda said they are fortunate to be able to have this talk as there are some options for the area not available for other areas.
Martin pointed out the San Joaquin Valley used to receive twice the surface water supplies and was able to recharge. Fukuda said there has been acreage planted on marginal soils and dripped. Land that was considered alkali, or as some call it silver loam, that is supporting some trees on drip.
Bottom line expenses are projected at almost $19 million for 2026. New California Air Resources Board requirements are not real world and trying to maintain compliance is costing millions of dollars and often the equipment doesn’t exist. So there’s that dip into the taxpayer’s pocket. The office remodel and annex as projected at $1.1 million might be a bit high. The board approved.
The last action item was hiring 4 Creeks Design to manage the new headquarters annex construction. The cost of lease property for the MKGSA is more expensive than remodeling existing HQ and adding an annex. Fukuda credited Fox for the idea. Good for him. The board approved.
Board Reports & Closed Session
The directors were invited to report on what they’ve been up to. They were up to something but it wasn’t pertinent to reporting publicly. Last month was a slow month and the meeting went into closed session for a dozen items at 11:45am. Not bad for a TID meeting. So, that’s that. Go be good to yourselves and others.
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TULARE IRRIGATION DISTRICT
6826 Ave 240, Tulare, CA 93274 Office: 559/686-3425
Board: David G. Bixler- President, Richard S. Borges, Jr.-Vice President, Scott Rogers, Dave Martin & Michael Thomas
Staff: Aaron Fukuda-General Manager, Kathi Artis–District Controller, Wayne Fox-Superintendent, Marco Crenshaw-District Watermaster, George Munoz-Assistant Engineer & Alex Peltzer-Attorney.
About: The Tulare Irrigation District was organized September 21, 1889. The original proposal for the formation of an irrigation district covering 219,000 acres, extending from the Sierra Nevada foothills to Tulare Lake, was eventually reduced to 32,500 acres. The District continued in this status until January of 1948 when the so-called Kaweah Lands” (approximately 11,000 acres) were annexed. In October of 1948, approximately 31,000 acres, compromising the area served by the Packwood Canal Company were annexed to the District. A U.S. Bureau of Reclamation contract was signed in 1950 providing an annual supply of 30,000 acre-feet of Class 1 water, and up to 141,000 acre-feet of Class 2 water from the Friant-Kern Canal. The District and the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District have coordinated efforts to enhance the recharge of groundwater within the Kaweah Basin. During high flow times KDWCD may use the recharge basins with the District for recharge purposes. Further, KDWCD has historically provided for a financial incentive program through which the District sustains the level of groundwater recharge from supply sources into the District. This historical program was recently reinstated by both districts in lieu of the District’s plans to concrete-line this canal to conserve the surface water. TID is a member of the Mid Kaweah GSA DWR#-5-022.11
