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Chowchilla Water District October 8, 2025

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JOBS/HELP WANTED

By Joel Hastings

President Roger Schuh called to order the monthly meeting of the Chowchilla Water District at 1:32 p.m. on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 at the District offices in Chowchilla. He invited public comment and this reporter asked for permission to place a recording device on the board table since his boss at WaterWrights has clients with an interest in recordings of water meetings in the Valley. Permission was granted and the meeting moved on to add two agenda items… the declaration of a booster pump as surplus so it could go to the auction and a new bid on the regulating and recharge basins to be built on the recently purchased Happy Boy property.

The Meeting

The agenda items were approved, and the board convened its GSA meeting. Resource Manager Doug Welch recalled that at the last meeting, three concepts for water demand reduction had been presented by Davids Engineering – 1) an incentive to use more surface water as available through the district; 2) a groundwater extraction fee of some amount to be levied on groundwater pumped beyond a level to be determined; and 3) a combination of both. The board had approved the concept of the combination, but Welch reported that he had had discussions with several directors and local growers and had concluded that doing both at the same time could create confusion and opposition.

He recommended that the board approve only option 2, a groundwater extraction fee. The board would determine annually at what level it might be applied and at what price. Welch said that if this approach did not generate the reduction needed to reduce groundwater pumping, option 1 could be applied later. He said a 218 Vote is not required and that with board approval, Davids Engineering would develop all the detail needed to implement and administer the program.

Discussion ensued. Director Nate Ray who has attended meetings in the Merced GSA said there had been pushback there with growers not certain about where the water extraction numbers were coming from. Vice President Karun Samran said that in Madera, while the default measurement is to Land IQ, many others are using Irriwatch. Ray and Schuh both expressed satisfaction with their Irriwatch results, which are provided closer to real time.Land IQ

In response to a question about what is to be accomplished here, Welch said less groundwater overdraft… to get in balance, not to raise money. Welch said there are limitations for what penalty funds could be used for in any event, such as recharge construction, retiring farm ground and even creating new infrastructure for the District to allow greater deliveries to growers.

Trying to get surface water to areas of greatest land subsidence was mentioned, areas west of Road 9. But no one wants to penalize growers in a dry year when there is less surface water available. Welch reaffirmed that the board would set the level that can be extracted and what the penalty would be. He said we need to reduce total water consumption on land within the District by 30,000 AF. Director Russell Harris commented that that represents water on about 10,000 acres.HotSpot Ag Banner Ad

Director Vince Taylor expressed concern that high levels of groundwater pumping in the white areas around the District were in effect drawing water right out from under us, so we’ll never get in balance. Welch explained that even if the white areas were completely in balance using only seven inches of sustainable yield water, the District would still have to reduce its usage to get in balance. He said the District was formed specifically to prevent overdraft.

Taylor continued saying we’re beating our head against the wall since the county is reducing water use too slowly… not intending to be in balance until 2040, the last year allowed by SGMA.

After more discussion along these lines, it was moved by Samran, seconded by Harris and approved unanimously to direct Davids Engineering to move forward developing the regulatory and administrative detail needed for a pilot program for Option 2 – a groundwater extraction fee. The firm will bring back these details for board consideration and action, likely in about 60 days, according to Welch. The group reconvened as the District board at 2:18 p.m.

Finances

Office Manager April Ellison presented the treasurer’s report saying that receipts for the month amounted to $3,486,123.03 and disbursements were $1,193,848.17 allowing for an ending balance on October 1 of $21,033,968.51. The warrants list of general account bills to be paid totaled $1,276,420.83. Both reports were approved without discussion. Reviewing the budgets, GM Brandon Tomlinson said the only significant variations were because more water had been made available for purchase and then sold than had been originally planned, not a bad problem. The minutes of the September 10 monthly meeting were also approved.

Next the board considered a resolution appointing three directors whose terms were expiring and under regular circumstances would run for reelection. However, with no other candidates filing, Nathan Ray, Vincent Taylor and Roger Schuh could be appointed for their four year terms and save the considerable expense of going through the county electoral process. President Schuh expressed concern that his vote for this process might be a conflict of interest, so a call to the District counsel was made. Later, with reassurance all was in order, the board passed the resolution on a roll call vote.

O&M

Chris Mayo gave his operations and maintenance report beginning with reservoir levels at Eastman (14,721 AF) and Millerton (254,319 AF). The old mobile home on the Happy Boy property had been demolished and removed. Recharge basins were mowed, and vegetation was removed from Avila Pond upper bank. More mowing was completed at LaBranza and Ash Main upper systems and the siphons were pumped, inspected and cleaned on LaBranza. In the shop, various inspections and maintenance were done on four Chevy 1500 ditch trucks, the Western Star dump trucks and the Peterbilt boom truck.

He said Woods pond along Avenue 20 had been a spot where trash was repeatedly dumped. He said a quote for chain link fencing for 300 feet had come in for $35,600. When it was determined that chain link might not be necessary, a quote for a five-foot high four-strand smooth wire fence came in for considerably less, about $5000.

A booster pump pulled from well on the Happy Boy farm land purchased was declared surplus so it could go to the auction.

GM Tomlinson gave his report about water year carry over, nearly identical to last month. He said we had less than 400 AF of carry-over to 2026 and then with a Bureau declaration of additional URFs, so now the carry-over is 1,480 AF.

The additional agenda item was for an updated bid on the Happy Boy regulating and recharge ponds. Originally, banks three and a half feet were proposed allowing for holding 2,500 AF or about 24 hours’ worth of water. Concerned that this was not enough, a bid for five-foot banks allowing 5,000 AF of storage was solicited, moving the price from $191,000 to $245,000 from the same contractor. The board approved this expansion and the new bid.

Doug Welch said he wanted to answer the question of  what percentage reduction of overdraft must be accomplished to achieve balance. He said the water use currently is 262,500 AF or about three and a half acre fee applied to about 75,000 irrigated acres. This use must be reduced by 30,000 AF. Simple division shows this is an 11 percent reduction.

There was more discussion about the fact that if the white areas surrounding the District don’t come into balance until 2040 using only seven inches of sustainable yield, then the District would not be able to accomplish its goal. Welch said that Stephanie Anagnoson, Madera County Water Department Director had asked repeatedly that someone from CWD come to their meetings and speak to the fact you’re taking water out from under us. She has told him that there are all these people coming to the podium saying that this (only allowing seven inches) is going to destroy their farms. And they’re right, Welch said, it is going to destroy their farms but that is what the law calls for… it calls for them to be in balance.

The discussion continued noting that if the District achieves it’s 11 percent reduction, it is in effect only in balance on paper because the water levels will still go down, since the county is not requiring the white areas to reduce water use at a faster rate. Even so, the District’s plan requires it to achieve the targeted 11 percent reductions, and that’s what will be done. With the meeting ending on this frustrating note, adjournment was declared at 2:50 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.

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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

 

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