By Don A. Wright
The San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority held its board of directors meeting on Thursday, September 17, 2026 at its Los Banos headquarters and online with Zoom. Looking over the agenda today I see the Chief Operating Officer Pablo Arroyave is receiving the highly coveted Golden Bucket Award. I’ve heard rumors Arroyave is moving on from SLDM. He’s always been forthright and helpful whenever I’ve had questions for him. I don’t know yet where his next steps will take him. I guess we’ll find out later in this meeting. He’ll be missed.*
Also missing from the room was Director Justin Diener who had to call it in from his office. This is all legal as the proper noticing was in place. It did require a roll call vote.
The Meeting
The meeting was scheduled to begin at 9:30 and it started at 9:40am due to some technical difficulties. Chairman Cannon Michael led the assembled in a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the greatest nation on earth. After that roll call was taken and the new CEO of Valley Water – Santa Clara Valley Water District – Aaron Baker was in the room. Good for him. I’ve met him and he’s a good guy. There was no public comment and the consent calendar was passed.
Action Items
Arroyave informed the board the Finance & Administration Committee recommends authorizing a task order with CMD Smith Inc. to increase the Delta Mendota Canal subsidence project management services up to $887,617. He said Task IIa will hopefully have its act together and start in the spring. The board approved.
The Arroyave Case
CEO Federico Barajas gave a rundown of all the things Arroyave has done. He’s worked for the US Bureau of Reclamation in California and Washington DC. Michael said it has been a quick seven years since Arroyave started at SLDM. Barajas said it will be a tough reality to accept him not being a part of the team. The board voted unanimously to award Arroyave the Golden Bucket.
Arroyave said he was honored and his time at the Water Authority has been an unprecedented opportunity to establish better relationships in the water community. He’s going to become the next General Manager of the Carmichael Water District in Sacramento. There was a long recitation of praise from directors and staff. Director Richard Santos from Valley Water presented Arroyave with some gifts of appreciation from his agency. There will be a lunch after the meeting to better roast Arroyave.
DMC Report
The first report was given by Arroyave concerning the subsidence on the Delta Mendota Canal. He noted the progress of Task I has been incredibly aggressive. For example crews are placing a five foot set back from the liner to the bank above. Peter Kewitt & Sons are doing the construction and Arroyave said the focus on safety is intense and so far there have been no problems. Most of the work taking place has been along the full canal with a strong current.
There will be a liner and embankment raise, five underwater panel repairs, six turnouts and four discharge pipe included in the Task II schedule this spring. For the most part there will be very little interruption of water conveyance. CMD Smith is the firm helping to develop the optimum flow schedule. It will be interesting to see how the SLDM approach to subsidence on its main conveyance will compare to that accomplished by the Friant Water Authority on the Friant Kern Canal’s subsidence problems. Michael said there is another tour coming up next week of the work area.
Golden Mussel
Dr. Cindy Meyer reported on the plague of mollusks called golden mussel. She said the rainy time is soon and urged everyone to completely check their facilities. There are thousands of golden mussels in the Jones Pumping Plant. She said they can live in just a stagnant puddle and survive for months. She also said to thank the crews at the plant for
their diligence in cleaning them up. She said the smell is horrendous. They can layer up five or six times thick and create an anaerobic barrier that increases corrosion. She also said they do leach calcium from concrete and can actually reduce the strength by 20 percent. She asked they consider evaluating the structural integrity of infrastructure crusted by the mussels.
Meyer said the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is looking for a written plan but it’s less than 20-pages. She said the USBR is looking deeply into the matter.
Petersen said a federal bill has been introduced to deal with golden mussels but it’s getting late in the congressional year. On the state side there is a bill on the governor’s desk to reduce the permitting hurdles to respond to golden mussels.
Meyer said there is a monthly agency meeting on golden mussels. I asked if there is any regulation of dumping ballast water and there is; but the golden mussel dump was unlucky. Petersen said there has been outreach to legislative staff and other research collaboration.
Gov’t Mischief
Next Petersen gave a rundown of federal actions saying a continuing resolution has been extended to December 11th. The Farm Bill has yet to be passed but there is some “cautious optimism” from some folks who were pessimistic. He said on October 1st and 2nd there will be a USBR workshop at UC Merced on Forecasting Modernization in October. This will help gain understanding of how decisions are made and what tools are available. The goal is to develop a roadmap to improve allocations.
On the state side Petersen said a coordination letter campaign on the Healthy Rivers & Landscapes HRL, to get it reined back into reality. He said all in all there was a successful defense on the bad bills and positive movement on the good bills.
Lily Mackay from Cal Strategies said the two year session wrapped up this month and they are waiting on action from the governor. There are still 900 bills awaiting signature before the September 30th deadline. Gavin Newsom has been a bit slow this year, spending time to sign priority bills at press conferences across the state.
Mackay listed several other bills but she spoke quickly. There are I believe two bills dealing with tribal water that are on the governor’s desk that have some serious negative implications for non-tribal people in California. AB 1881 is one of the bills.
Exec Direct Report
Barajas said Petersen, attorney Becka Akroyd and himself will be covering the transition of the COO position as Arroyave moves on. They are soliciting for a qualified replacement and casting a wide net to secure the best possible person to step into this position. Barajas said Akroyd and Arroyave both did a great job in negotiating with the Bureau on water
supplies.
Michael said there are some needs – some required duties – by the directors and some are on the stink eye list for not turning in Form 700s, sexual harassment training and ethics training. He didn’t want to name names. There is also a new fiscal and financial training required for board members to consider. Akroyd said the training is free for board members since SLDM is a member of the California Special District Association. Del Puerto WD GM Anthea Hansen said if the home agency isn’t a member of the SCDA you will pay. Wow. You can train as a director of the SLDM and I’m not sure if that covers your training requirements for the home boards.
COO Report
Arroyave said starting at noon Wednesday, September 23rd through noon the next day the O’Neill pumping plant transformers will be tested and that will reduce the deliveries for a short while. He also said staff is working diligently to complete the proposed budget. That was that for Arroyave’s last report at SLDM.
Water Report
Levi Johnson from the USBR reported in the Sacramento Valley releases should be ramping down later this month. There has been fish data collected that justifies lowering Sacramento River releases to base flow cfs, about 1,800. He said Jones demands are picking up but may decrease by next month. He thanked Arroyave for the update on the transformers and showed a photo.
Johnson said the USBR is doing the tricky dance of salt moving into the Delta, releases in the Sac Valley cutting down and maintaining exports. He said the Bureau is watching the Yuba water transfers and will respond as nimbly as possible. Johnson added how much he appreciated the coordination with SLDM under Arroyave’s leadership. He expects this to continue. Petersen thanked Johnson for he and his team’s work.
Committee/Outside Agency/Directors Reports
If there was a committee report, I didn’t hear it. The Family Farm Alliance will have an October conference in Reno this year instead of during the throws of winter in February. Bill Diedrich reported the California Farm Water Coalition will have a strategic plan meeting soon. He said DWR’s Joel Metzler spoke on the hard and the soft work that needs to be done. He said the urban population needs to let its elected officials know they must have the political will to do the hard work of building infrastructure.
Petersen said the recent Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley strategic planning meeting went very well. The Unified Water Plan is gaining traction. The Blueprint’s sister agency Great Valley Farm Water Partnership is looking to gain support for the south of Delta projects like the Del Puerto Canyon Dam.
Michael said he’s on the California Water Plan advisory committee and they are working
hard to make sure the proper data is used in developing the plan. There was a meeting in Southern California recently and there will be a November meeting in Fresno. Michael said this is part of the five-year update that is tasked with developing another nine million NEW acre feet of supplies. Barajas said having Michael directly interfacing in these meetings is a must to ensure the CVP is accounted properly. A director whose name I don’t know spoke up about the waste of high-speed rail and what could be done in a productive positive matter with the billions of dollars being wasted.
Baker said the CVP is critical to Valley Water and he has enjoyed working with SLDM and looks forward to more.
Closed Session
The meeting went into closed session at 11:18am for a trash can full of legal matters. That was that for San Luis Delta Mendota this month. Go be good to yourselves and others.
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*SPEAKING OF PEOPLE who will be missed, I was sad to learn Randy McFarland passed away recently. Many years ago I owned a newspaper and had it printed at the Selma Register. McFarland was the Editor in Chief and extremely gracious in sharing his wisdom and experience with me. He also was an excellent historian and author. Once, he and the SLDM founding CEO Dan Nelson gave a presentation at the Fresno Arts Museum on the history of water in the San Joaquin Valley. It was informative, entertaining and I believe needed to go on the road. We’ve lost some good men in the water world; Kole Upton, Willam Boschman and others who have given more than they have taken. They deserve more than a footnote.
SAN LUIS & DELTA-MENDOTA WATER AUTHORITY was established in January of 1992 and consists of approximately 2,100,000 acres of 29 federal and exchange water service contractors within the western San Joaquin Valley, San Benito and Santa Clara counties. The governing body of the Authority consists of a 19-member Board of Directors classified into five divisions with directors selected from within each division. The main conveyance is the Delta-Mendota Canal that delivers approximately 3,000,000-acre feet of water within the Authority service area. Of this amount, 2,500,000-acre feet are delivered to highly productive agricultural lands, 150,000 to 200,000-acre feet for municipal and industrial uses, and between 250,000 to 300,000 acre-feet are delivered to wildlife refuges for habitat enhancement and restoration.
Board – Chairman: Cannon Michael,
Staff – Executive Director: Federico Barajas, COO: Pablo Arroyave, Attorney: Becca Akroyd, Director Finance: Ray Tarka, Director Water Policy: J. Scott Petersen, Director O&M/Facilities: Bob Martin
Email: youtellus@sldmwa.org 209/826-9696
P.O. Box 2157 Los Banos, CA. 93635
DWR SGMA #5-022.07
