By Joel Hastings
President Roger Schuh called to order the regular monthly meeting of the Chowchilla Water District board of directors at 1:30 p.m. on March 11 in the district offices. Directors Karun Samran and Russell Harris were present making a quorum and director Nathan Ray arrived very shortly. While there were no public comments, Friant Water Association CEO Johnny Amaral was present, taking part in the closed session at the end of the open meeting along with Ralph and Steve Pistoresi who were on hand as well, speaking later on the agenda.
The GSA Meeting
Convening as the GSA board, the group heard Doug Welch present the outline of a
resolution incorporating extraction fees for pumping groundwater above certain levels and a program to incentivize use of the district’s surface water. Davids Engineering drafted the document and will be invited to discuss the details at the next meeting. To secure approval of the revised GSP and to continue under the control of DWR, all the GSAs in the Chowchilla Subbasin need to adopt this resolution by April 1. It had been considered and approved at a meeting of the advisory committee held on February 18. It would put the tools in place to allow actions to be taken if there are “triggering events,” that is groundwater levels dropping at higher rates or subsidence exceeding certain amounts. Any penalties collected could be used to continue the district’s programs to bring water usage into balance. A resolution to adopt this full program was approved unanimously in a roll call vote. 
The Meeting
Resuming the CWD board meeting at 2 p.m., the group approved minutes of the February 11 regular meeting. A special meeting had been held on March 5 when the 2026 budget was adopted. It projects water sales at $11.9 million and total revenue of nearly $15.5 million. The cost of water supplies is estimated at just over $8.3 million with transmission and distribution costs at $3 million. With non-operating expenses at $1.2 million, net earnings are projected at $485,916. No price for water to growers was predicted. The meeting minutes from March 5 were approved. That’s the “fun” of doing a water district budget… you don’t know how much water you’ll have to sell or at what price you might have to sell it.
Office Manager April Ellison presented the treasurer’s report, reading balances of $21,323,113.70 on hand February 1, receipts of $191,230.23 and disbursements of $722,270.99 for an ending balance on March 1 of $20,791,622.94. Her report was approved as was the warrants list of bills totaling $1,707,782.01. Schuh inquired about a policy that might require a certain amount of cash be kept on hand beyond operating expenses in the case of a very dry year with limited water sales.
Grower Ralph Pistoresi and his son, Steve, were on the agenda to talk about the district annexing several hundred acres of white area land owned by them and several others including Case Vlot. He thanked General Manager Brandon Tomlinson and Director of Operations Chris Mayo for meeting with him there to look at his concept. Ralph said this move would allow the district to connect with the Bypass and that the property owners would donate land to construct a big recharge basin to capture flood flows from the Bypass. He said this move would benefit the district as well as the property owners. In discussion,
the question was asked whose water is it when there are flood flows. Pistoresi said Madera County has a temporary permit and that he and Vlot have connected their water systems. Johnny Amaral suggested that the first step might be consultation with an attorney about rights to this water. Pistoresi said he wanted to put this idea on the table.
O&M
Moving on with the agenda, Mayo presented his report describing monthly reservoir inflows to Eastman at 10,285 AF and Millerton at 47,228 AF. He said an old irrigation pipeline had been removed and holes had been backfilled at Cornaggia Pond and several other projects done at Avila Pond and Califa Pond. He also documented work done in the shop on district vehicles. There were no questions for him.
The board made a declaration of surplus property on a 2007 Ford F-150 truck with over 200,000 miles and a flatbed 2003 Superline equipment trailer that had been replaced. Both items will be sold at auction.
Water Report
GM Tomlinson said the current allocation from Millerton is 100 percent Class 1 and 0 Class 2 but based on snowmelt and weather conditions, it might be that the Bureau says to avoid spill over, some water might have to be taken now. He said there is eight weeks of water for the district and that if the water year has to begin at this point it could end as early as July 1. While that is undesirable, there was consensus that no water be lost. Director Harris asked if maybe Madera ID could take this water now and Chowchilla would get some later. Amaral said it’s a weird water year where some forecast storms have fizzled. He said it may be one of those years where we use it or it’s gone.
NOTE: In last month’s report, we incorrectly labeled TOC amounts as actual water behind Buchanan and Friant dams. Readers know that “Top of Conservation” is the amount of daily capacity, calculated as the difference between water that’s there and total capacity. For example, in his report at this meeting, Tomlinson showed current storage at Eastman at 41,139 AF. With total capacity of 150,000 AF, that leaves TOC at 119,485.
Director Nathan Ray reported that he had hosted an official from DWR who was in the area looking to understand realities on the ground. Ray said this official, Joel Metzger, has been tasked with finding nine million acre-feet of additional water in the state by 2040. Ray said he had talked with him about funding, suggesting that rather than paying growers to fallow land, instead they be paid for constructing projects that contribute to recharge.
With no other discussion, at 2:37 p.m. the board went into closed session with their attorney on the phone and Amaral joining them.
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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
