By Joel Hastings
The Chowchilla Water District board of directors held its regular monthly meeting at the District offices in Chowchilla on June 12, 2024. President Roger Schuh called the meeting to order at 1:31 p.m. with directors Karun Samran and Nathan Ray present and Russell Harris on the call-in phone line from Nashville, Tenn. Director Vince Taylor was not present, but a quorum allowed the meeting to proceed. Nathan “Nate” Ray is the new director appointed by the board at a special meeting on June 4th. He is the CEO in charge of the cropping operations at DeJager Farms in Chowchilla, reportedly the largest single property owner in the District.
While two members of the public were in attendance along with this reporter – Phil Janzen of Agriland farming and Jordyn Vannorsdel with Water Wise – there was no public comment and no change in the agenda.
SGMA
Schuh convened the Groundwater Sustainability Agency board meeting and turned the floor over to Doug Welch, resource director and staff head of the Agency. He said Davids
Engineering met last week with State Water Resources Control Board staff to review the changes in the Groundwater Sustainability Plan. Welch said, “At this point we feel that we are ready to start revising the GSP itself.”
Welch said this updated draft will be submitted to the Advisory Committee composed of representatives from CWD, Merced County and Triangle T Water District. The draft will be provided to these three GSA boards along with a recommendation from the Committee. Welch said this will all be occurring in August.
The Meeting
Reconvening as the CWD board, the group heard the financial report presented by April Garay, office manager. She said receipts for the month had totaled $838,649.76, disbursements had been $3,622,242.80 and the ending balance on June 1 was
$11,353,709.86. The warrant of bills totaled $2,763,041.57. Both reports were approved without discussion. The budget reports of expenditures and income were reviewed with GM Brandon Tomlinson saying that while water expenditures were up, there were no surprises, and no action was required.
On the phone, Luis Perez reviewed the independent auditor’s report for 2023 financials as prepared by his firm of Bryant L. Jolley, CPAs. Citing total assets of nearly $54 million, Perez reviewed income and expense, use and application of funds and the current debt structure, all of which are sound. He said he was pleased there are no reportable conditions regarding internal controls and no other situations for the firm to report. The only item of discussion was President Schuh’s inquiry about the balance sheet figure of the $18 million asset figure for “water entitlements.” Perez said it was a figure posted at historic cost. With no other questions, the report was unanimously approved. Also approved were minutes of the May 8 regular meeting and the June 4 special meeting.
O&M Report
Chris Mayo delivered his operations and maintenance report. He said two orifices had been installed at the headworks of the main canal along with repairs of various canal breaks and wash-ins, all the result of the early and high volume water season to this point. He documented maintenance work on eight pieces of District equipment.
After discussion, the board approved consigning eight pieces of surplus equipment including two high mileage pickup trucks to the auction on July 13 in Merced. A $15,000 bid on the 2006 International dump truck that has been replaced is labeled surplus but it’s sale will be considered before consignment
GM Report
In his General Manager’s report, Brandon Tomlinson said that last Friday (June 7), Friant came out of uncontrolled season with a residual of three percent but then extended it to June 14. Once the 14th hits, he said, and if the uncontrolled season is not extended, there will be a two percent residual. This amounts to 5,000 AF of Millerton Lake water to be delivered in September. He said the projections are for a 73,000AF to be left in Eastman Lake, compared with the ending last year of 90,000AF. During discussion, he said that 18,000AF delivered is average for September and 9,000AF for October.
Tomlinson said the Ewell Group had reported that Congressmember John Durate put in a direct funding request to get the Buchanan Dam raise study started. Senator Alex Padilla has put in a request to fund the LeGrand Intertie project.
Discussion followed with questions asked about the impact of growers who are buying water during the week but not wanting it on weekends in light of new overtime pay requirements for their workers. O&M Manager Mayo said that weekend deliveries sometimes drop by as much as two thirds. How to manage these water volumes and then begin deliveries Monday mornings challenges both District facilities and staff. Practices and policies in neighboring districts were referenced and the consensus was that staff would continue to evaluate the situation and bring ideas for policy and pricing adjustments to the Board. It was noted pricing adjustments might need to be made to incentivize weekend water purchases… either raising the weekday rates or lowering the weekend rates.
Reimbursement agreements with the California High Speed Rail Authority were approved, covering the costs for staff to work with and approve plans required for the right of way that would impact its District facilities.
An agenda item had indicated that the amount and pricing of water for subordinate lands might be considered and acted upon at this meeting. GM Tomlinson said that with the continuation of the uncontrolled season at Friant, there was no need for action at this meeting. Water would continue to be provided at the current prices. In response to a question, he said there are between two thousand and three thousand acres of subordinate lands in the District.
With Director Ray appointed to the vacant board seat created by the passing of Kole Upton, the board acted to update its committee assignments. Ray was named to the standing personnel committee, replacing President Schuh, along with the Madera-
Chowchilla Water & Power Authority and its budget committee along with the CWD Groundwater Sustainability Agency and the High Speed Rail Committee. President Schuh becomes the director of the ACWA-JPIA board.
There was no closed session and the meeting concluded with brief comments from several directors. The next board meeting will be a closed session on June 18. The meeting was adjourned at 2:35 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; Treasurer – Lola Beatty
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.
