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Arvin Edison Water Storage District January 14, 2025

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By Don A. Wright

The Arvin Edison Water Storage District held its board of directors meeting at its Arvin headquarters on Tuesday, January 14, 2025. It’s been a while since I attended an Arvin meeting. I’m sorry to all of my friends at all of the meetings, dinners, luncheons but – Arvin serves the best meal I’ve had, and I’ve had some good ones, at a public agency related event. There must be someone starting the barbeque grill early the morning of. I’ve had BBQ from here to Texas and I’ve never had better. So, seeing how I need to lose some pounds anyway, it is bittersweet to attend this meeting online. Not only because I’m missing the great food, but also because it’s on Mircosnot Teams.

The Meeting

Things started at 12:04pm with a flag salute the way a government agency should start in the greatest country on earth. General Manager Jeven Muhar introduced everyone and during public comment I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time so I got right to the point and found out they were serving the usual spread sans ribs. Chairman Edwin Camp pointed out the regular pit-master wasn’t available today.

Jenny Holterman presented Arvin Director Derek Yurosek with an award from the Water Association of Kern County. The WAKC has an excellent water summit in Bakersfield scheduled for March 6th. From personal experience it is very much worth showing up for.

Consent Calendar

The consent calendar is a portion of the agenda where items requiring votes but of a routine nature can be lumped together and voted upon as a block. This usually includes minutes and such. The consent calendar was passed.

Reports

Muhar reported on the Friant Water Authority saying there has been a change in board officers. There is a new chair and executive committee members. Arvin sent a comment letter to the State Water Resources Control Board in support of the Voluntary Agreements along with Friant.

Muhar said there is enough water in the snowpack of the San Joaquin River to justify a five or 10 percent allocation increase. He said it appears there is a good chance of no call on Friant’s SJR supplies for the Exchange Contractors and there may well be enough for a minimum 50 percent Friant Class One allocation – if I understood correctly.

Camp asked for an Unreleased Restoration Flow update. The SJR isn’t yet in shape to allow for full restoration flows to get the salmon in the shape the folks in government would like. What happens is the water that would have gone downstream for fish can be sold back to Friant for between $30 to $300 per acre foot depending on the hydrological year. One of the directors complemented Muhar for understanding the complexity of URFs. Amen. That’s why I didn’t write “Muhar said”. It got a bit complicated and I didn’t want to leave any misunderstanding. If there are questions, you’ll need to refer to the meeting minutes.

Kern & White Wolf Subbasins

Muhar reported the State Board has set a probation hearing for the Kern Subbasin on February 20th in Sacramento. Road trip. He said the subbasin has worked hard to get all the state’s concerns addressed. He stressed the overall coordination of the area is ongoing. He sounded more optimistic than in the past.

Camp asked if the State Board understands the Friant Kern Canal and produced oilfield waters’ piece of the puzzle. I believe it was Yurosek who indicated State Board staff does understand this for agricultural water use and it won’t cause undesirable results under SGMA. As to any other concerns such as domestic well water quality there was a very productive meeting with State Board staff and subbasin representatives. Subsidence is no longer a red flag, coordination of the subbasin is looking good. Yurosek said the Groundwater Sustainability Plan appears to be backstopped to the State Board’s satisfaction. However, he said there weren’t any technical staff on the call. Still the communication is much better than this time last year.

Muhar said Arvin Edison is in three different Groundwater Sustainability Agencies: the White Wolf, Kern and South of Kern River Subbasins. He said there are grant projects undergoing. The California Aqueduct Subsidence Program has refined its data and that will help the subbasins going forward.

Muhar said in 2023 there was a lot of water and Arvin Edison had a recharge program. The White Wolf board liked it and asked for some technical help to recreate such a program in its area. He said there are Arvin Edison growers within White Wolf who have participated in the program in the past. Muhar said if White Wolf adopts a similar recharge program how does that impact the Arvin Edison program is a question that needs answering.

Staff Reports

            I wasn’t sure who gave the water and operations report but it was thorough. It was expectedly similar to the other reports given lately. The north third of the state is wet, the middle is below normal and the south part of California is dry. It was noted it’s been foggier than usual for the past several years. I’ve noticed that too. This Valley was markedly foggier throughout recorded history than it has been in the past decade or so. The air quality in the Valley is generally better than ever and fog requires particulates in order to form. I’ll wager everything in my pocket we have less fog due to cleaner air.

The next item was grants and on-going projects. There was some impressive drone video shown of a turnout installation. And after that attorney Joe Hughes said he had nothing for open session. The meeting adjourned into closed session at 12:55pm for 10 items dealing with either lawsuits or labor. Go be good to each other and yourselves.

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  Copyright 2025 by Don A. Wright

Arvin Edison Water Storage District, 20401 Bear Mountain Boulevard Mailing Address: P.O. Box 175 Arvin, CA 93203-0175

661/854-5573

Staff: GM-Jeevan Muhar, Asst. GM-David Nixon, Attorney- Joe Hughes

AE has a nine-member board: President Edwin Camp, Vice President Jeffrey Giumarra, Secretary Treasurer Dennis Johnston, Brian Kirschenmann, Derek Yurosek, Scott Spitzer, Catherine Fanucchi, Catalino Martinez and Matthew Vickery

 

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