By Joel Hastings
The Chowchilla Water District board of directors held its regular monthly meeting at the District offices in Chowchilla on December 11, 2024. All directors were present, and President Roger Schuh called the meeting to order at 1:33 p.m. There were no adjustments to the agenda and no public comment.
Convening as the Chowchilla Subbasin GSA board, the group completed the public hearing on the proposed revisions to the Subbasin’s GSP. Resource Manager Doug Welch led a short discussion, reiterating that the revisions were now ready for submission. The goal continues to be to have an approved plan in place so that the GSA can remain under the jurisdiction of DWR.
Back as the CWD board, the group heard the financial report as presented by Treasurer Lela Beatty. Her report showed receipts of $304,325.23 in the month of November, with disbursements totaling $1,891,133.25 for an ending balance on December 1 of $17,383,863.41. The warrants list of bills for the general account totaled $1,621,163.60 and both were approved along with the budget report.
Minutes of the November 13 meeting were approved and then Chris Mayo gave his operations and maintenance report. Work on the District canals included continued sediment removals, lining the banks of Central Pond, mowing and spraying. The board room had been painted with new lighting installed, as well. He referenced work in the shop on four trucks, the Western Star dump truck and engine work on the D & H.
Under new business, a proposal for work designing a road crossing to supply water to T Double R ponding basins was considered from Davids Engineering. Two elements were approved on the recommendation of GM Brandon Tomlinson – a topographic survey and a 60 percent pipeline crossing design, totaling $14,450. Additional design work had been included for another $7899 but was deemed not necessary at this point.
In February of this year, the board purchased two adjoining parcels, a 20 acre piece with a house and a piece with nearly 200 acres. The staff has designed a recharge facility on the larger piece and determined that the smaller piece is not necessary. A resolution was approved declaring it surplus to begin the process of a sale.
A resolution was approved to purchase another piece of land also for recharge. The owner, Toku Beccio, wishes to sell the approximately 37 acres and a price of no more than $650,000 plus half the closing costs was approved by the board.
The next item was consideration of a proposed new water district called Bonita Water District consisting of 9,600 acres in the Chowchilla and Madera Subbasins. Brad Samuelson of Water & Land Solutions spoke on behalf of this project asking for a letter of
support from the CWD board. Maps had been included in the board packet showing that the property is in the Madera GSA, and not the CWD or any other water district. The owners of the listed parcels are the Diepersloot and Iest dairy farming families. After discussion, the board took no action and said it would consider the matter at a future date, likely at least in part in closed session.
In his report, GM Tomlinson referenced the rain and snow starting the new water year, and provided updated figures on water amounts behind the Buchanan and Friant dams… 71,180 AF and 212,135 AF, respectively.
The board moved to closed session for a conference with its legal counsel about 3:00 p.m.
This reporter listened in to this meeting on the phone, rather than attending in person due to personal travel commitments. GM Tomlinson was very helpful, responding promptly to our questions afterwards, since hearing the discussion around the table was nigh on impossible. With his help, we think we are accurately reporting board action, but we weren’t able to capture the flavor of board discussions this time. We’ll be back in January, but with the meeting date moved from its regular slot to a day and time to be determined, according to Tomlinson.
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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
