By Joel Hastings
President Roger Schuh called to order the regular meeting of the Chowchilla Water District board of directors at 1:30 p.m. in the district offices on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. Director Vince Taylor was absent and Schuh immediately invited public comment. Ralph Pistoresi asked for the floor saying he wanted to give the board a preview of a request he wanted to put on next month’s agenda. He said he and several other farmers just outside the southwest border of the district are working on a plan to develop recharge basins
aimed at capturing flood flows from what’s referred to as the Bypass. He referred to the recharge basins being built by the district as committed to in the GSP requiring significant investment. He implied that if land owned by his group might be brought into the district, they could offer what he called considerable recharge opportunities. He was invited to work with staff to be on the agenda next time.
GSA Meeting
With no other public comment and no agenda changes, the meeting convened as the GSA board. Resource Manager Doug Welch presented a draft plan developed by Davids Engineering as requested for demand management reduction and subsidence mitigation. Welch said he was not going to review the details as they would be considered by the advisory committee at its meeting next Wednesday (February 18). The plan will then be brought back to the board for detailed consideration with any recommendations from the committee.
Regular Meeting
Returning to the board agenda, Schuh mentioned that the board would go into closed session at 2:30 p.m. to consult with the district’s attorney and then invited April Ellison to give the treasurer’s report. She gave the balances with receipts of $2,887,737.34, disbursements of $2,015,826.21 and an ending balance on February 1 of $21,323,113.70. In reply to a question, she said the amount of outstanding receivables for water sales at $146,000 was typical. Her report was approved. The warrant’s list of bills to pay at
$1,537,986.97 was also approved. The minutes of the January 14 meeting were approved as well.
The board approved technical resolutions objecting to the county’s possible tax sale of two parcels. The district wants the amount owed paid to them first, before any sale. The board also approved a resolution establishing an account at Tri-Counties Bank for the domestic well mitigation program. The balance currently is $1.7 million and the new account will pay three percent interest.
The board next considered three requests for forgiveness of penalties imposed for late payment of property assessments. While each case was slightly different, the amounts were less than $1000 and all outstanding invoices were paid. An amount not forgiven last time was also referenced but that overdue bill had not been paid up at that date. All three cases were forgiven.
O&M
Operations Director Chris Mayo gave his report citing work around the district and in the shop. He said all completed ponds had water flowing into them this month with the Friant release. He spoke about the need to remove old pipelines from one of the new basins which hadn’t been evident before.
GM Report
Brandon Tomlinson gave a water year update in his general manager’s report. He showed water balances behind Buchanan Dam at 116,170 AF out of the 150,000 AF capacity. He said a good bit of district water may come from there this season. He said the carryover from 2025 was 1,484 AF and the balance in the San Luis Reservoir is 1,477 AF.
He said that in January, the district brought in 12,800 AF from the Class 2 Friant releases which had ended prematurely on February 3. Of that amount brought in, 3004.11 AF had been sold in total with 593 AF of that going to subordinate lands. There were 1,325 AF delivered to recharge ponds and 656 AF had been delivered to water rights holders.
In February, the district brought in 2,896 AF with 2,248 AF sold and of that 391 AF to subordinates. He said 410 AF were delivered for recharge ponds and 127 AF to water rights holders. He said the February figures were not yet complete.
He provided details of the precipitation, inflows and storage figures for Eastman Lake by month, October through January. He also cited precipitation totals for the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and the Tulare Lake region, all ahead of normal. However, snow accumulations in the Sierras and statewide are all well below normal. He commented on the wet weather forecasted.
Directors Reports
Directors’ reports were invited. Nathan Ray said he had received a call from a private contractor who said that a DWR official might be visiting to discuss demand management and possible funding opportunities. It said the call had been pretty vague and of course, such inquiries were to be directed to the district staff. Russell Harris asked about progress on the pilot program for demand reduction that had been discussed. It was said the draft plan set for consideration next week had the details.
After a bit of conversation about how the Bureau had announced the 15 percent allocation and then shut it off prematurely, the board recessed at 2:25 before going into to closed session. The agenda called for consideration of the employment agreement with General Manager Tomlinson as well as real property negotiations.
DISCLAIMER OF RESPONSIBILITY; Waterwrights strives to provide clients with the most complete, up-to-date, and accurate information available. Nevertheless, Waterwrights does not serve as a guarantor of the accuracy or completeness of the information provided, and specifically disclaims any and all responsibility for information that is not accurate, up-to-date, or complete. Waterwrights’ clients therefore rely on the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of information from Waterwrights entirely at their own risk. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not represent any advertisers or third parties.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2026 by WaterWrights.net
Chowchilla Water District – PO Box 905 – 327 So. Chowchilla Ave., Chowchilla, CA 93610 559/665-3747 website www.cwdwater.com
Staff: General Manager – Brandon Tomlinson; General Resource Manager – Douglas Welch
Board: Roger Schuh – President, Karun Samran – Vice President, Russell Harris, Nathan Ray and Vince Taylor
PROFILE: Formed in 1949, the Chowchilla Water District serves about 85,000 acres situated in southern Merced County and northern Madera County on the eastside of the San Joaquin Valley. Its over 400 water users have an average farm size of about 162 acres. Buchanan Dam was constructed in 1975 and is operated and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The maximum capacity of the dam is 150,000 acre-feet and has a maximum conservation capacity of 140,000 acre-feet. The District also has appropriative water rights issued by the State Water Resources Control Board to divert water from the Chowchilla River. The Madera Canal supplies water from Friant Dam to the Chowchilla Water District. The District has contracted with the Bureau of Reclamation for 55,000 acre-feet of Class 1 Water and 160,000 acre-feet of Class 2 Water. With Madera ID, the District owns the Madera-Chowchilla Water & Power Authority which operates the Madera Canal and four hydroelectric power plants located on the Madera Canal.
The Chowchilla Subbasin’s DWR # is 5-022.06
