By Joel Hastings
President Roger Schuh called to order the monthly meeting of the Chowchilla Water District board of directors at 1:30 p.m. on August 13, 2025 at the District offices. There was no public comment and no changes in the agenda.
SGMA
Convening as the board of the CWD GSA, the group heard Doug Welch, resource director, report on a second meeting with DWR staff to discuss the revised GSP that had been reviewed by the State Board and sent back to DWR. Welch said that DWR may take up to a year to review the revisions in the plan. Welch said the staff was reminded that about $13 million had been spent to purchase land and build some 200 acres of recharge basins.
There were then comments and questions about a demand reduction program that would require growers to take land out of production. Welch said that such a plan must be in place at least by the end of the year, so that if as few as three monitoring wells out of 26 showed lowered groundwater levels by specific amounts, demand reduction could be implemented. Welch said that Davids Engineering has been tasked with developing options for such plan. President Schuh said he would be interested to hear an interim report from them to know what direction they might be heading.
There was discussion about satellite measurement of ETW, with Director Nathan Ray and President Schuh saying they believed such results to be quite accurate. The board then discussed whether the implementation of a demand reduction program would require a 218 vote. Welch said that he recommended they consult with their attorney before coming to a decision.
Board Meeting
At 2:04 p.m., the board reconvened to continue the CWD agenda, considering a contract with Provost & Pritchard engineering firm in Clovis to be available to provide consultation as might be needed. Sean Smith, PE and principal engineer, was in attendance. This agreement in the amount of $25,000 is a continuation of the relationship that CWD has had with P&P. With little discussion, the task order was approved unanimously.
Finance/O&M
Office Manager April Garay presented the treasurer’s report, saying that the beginning balance on July 1 had been $12,488,155.49. Receipts for July totaled $3,854,711.91 and disbursements were $1,304,005.73 resulting in a balance on August 1 of $15,048,861.67. Schuh asked for confirmation that only one payment on long term debt remains –
$833,896.21. The warrant list of bill payments totaled $1,393,326.81. Both reports were approved, as was the budget report showing revenue and expense in line with the plan. The minutes of the July 9 meeting were approved when a price of $500 / AF for subordinate water was approved.
In his operations and maintenance report, Chris Mayo, director of operations, pointed out lake levels at Eastman (28,110 AF) and Millerton (316,450 AF). He reviewed maintenance items, and his written report detailed work on the District’s trucks and equipment.
GM Report
General Manager Brandon Tomlinson said the District had received some unreleased flows from Millerton priced at $170 / AF, allowing the season to be extended to shut off on August 19. It was agreed at the suggestion of Director Vince Taylor that water from Millerton would be used first, and then water from Eastman, with the thought that if there were any carry over, it would remain there.
With no reports from directors, the meeting was recessed to closed session at 2:34 p.m.
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 2025 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. The District serves about 85,000 acres in southern Merced and northern Madera Counties. It’s 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
