By Joel Hastings
The Chowchilla Water District board of directors meeting was called to order by President Roger Schuh at 1:30 p.m. on June 11 at the District offices in Chowchilla. Directors Nathan Ray and Vince Taylor were present making a quorum.
Schuh invited public comment, and two LeGrand area growers were on hand to ask if water could be made available to them as subordinate land owners. Syam Maradani, who had appeared last month, reiterated his request for water for his trees that he said were being watered now only by pumping with a resulting very high PG&E electric bill. With him was Sai Nuthakki of Golden Farms who added his request. General Manager Brandon
Tomlinson said that the District had purchased 1,378 AF of URF Unreleased Flows water from Friant at $170 / AF. But he said this was Class 1 water.
It was noted that there are 4,000 acres of subordinate land in the District and as was stated last time, there is no Class 2 allocation and so nothing is available for that land. There was a bit more discussion, but it was stated that with this topic was not on the agenda and with no class 2 water, there would be no action taken. Director Taylor said for subordinate land owners, the District would wheel water if it could be found. Schuh said we feel your plight but there is nothing to be done right now.
The Rule of By Law
With counsel Alex Rodriguez on Zoom, the board considered an updated revision of the District bylaws. Rodriquez said that the last revision had been done in 1975, so this new version takes into account more recent California law on water and elections. Schuh said he hadn’t realized that while there are five districts and five directors, the elections are at
large. With a request that this language be clarified, the board voted unanimously to repeal and replace the old bylaws with this updated version.
Audit Report
Next also on Zoom, Luis Perez from Bryant L Jolley, CPAs, of Firebaugh, presented the audit report of the 2024 financials. In addition to reviewing the totals of assets, liabilities and cash flows, he confirmed that the District’s financial reports fairly present the condition of the District and conform to generally accepted accounting principles… a clean report. The board accepted this presentation.
SGMA
The group convened as the GSA board and heard Resource Manager Doug Welch state that the State Board had met on June 3 and, with recommendations, approved the revised GSP for the Chowchilla Subbasin, returning the Subbasin back to the Department of Water Resources. A joint news release had been issued on that date by the District, Madera
County, Triangle T Water District and Merced County. Welch was quoted in that release and here at the meeting saying this is a great step forward for the GSAs in our Subbasin.
With no other business before the GSA, the board reconvened to consider District business, beginning with financial reports. Office Manager April Garay presented the financial statement showing receipts of $270,667.08 and disbursements of $3,048,013.03 for a balance on June 1 of $12,494,335.09. This report was approved along with the warrant of bills amounting to $1,969,096.06. Garay said that water bills had been mailed on May 31 so there had been no receipts to date. She said that only two remaining customers had outstanding amounts owed from last year and would not be receiving water. The budget report was reviewed with GM Tomlinson saying there were no unexpected expenses. He said the sale of the house and 20 acres approved at the last meeting was in escrow.
The minutes of the May 14 meeting were approved.
A license agreement with PG&E was approved giving them access to District property near the Berenda boat launch for a rent of $2,500 per month. Also, a license agreement with the DWR was approved allowing the set up of a GPS monitoring station to measure subsidence on another District parcel.
O&M Report
Director of Operations Chris Mayo gave his operations and maintenance report showing storage behind Buchanan Dam had dropped 13,896 AF to 84,365 AF as of May 31. He said Friant storage had increased nearly 40,000 AF in May to 468,440 AF as of May 31. He described repair work on various District canals and ponds. In the shop, he listed repairs and maintenance on several ditch and dump trucks. He said that tree removal was being completed on the properties recently acquired. GM Tomlinson added that buyer for a double-wide trailer on one of the properties had backed out, so a listing of this trailer and several tanks and pumps on recently purchased lands was being complied to go out for sealed bids.
In his report further, Tomlinson said it appeared that by blending water from the Madera Canal and Buchanan that the water season could extend into mid-August. It was agreed that at the next meeting, a decision would be made to determine carry over at Buchanan and the end of the water season, possibly the first week in September.
With no reports from the directors, the meeting was adjourned at 2:45 p.m.
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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
