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Chowchilla Water Special Meeting – January 15, 2025

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By Joel Hastings

The Chowchilla Water District board of directors held a special meeting on January 15, 2025. It was termed “special” in the agenda because it was held on the third Wednesday in the month, rather than the regularly scheduled second Wednesday, but not because of any particular action to be taken. The session was called to order at 1:32 p.m. by President Roger Schuh with all directors attending.

Public comment was invited and Brad Samuelson said he wanted to give the board several updates. As the general manager of the LeGrand-Athlone Water District, he summarized the work being done on the so-called intertie project, a canal that will connect the Merced River with the Chowchilla River, supported by the Merced Irrigation District to provide water to the LGAWD and the Chowchilla Water District. He said phase 1 construction is almost completed, with three more phases in the works. He said property owners had approved a 218 proposal to provide funding and that grants and loans had been obtained from both the EPA and the Bureau of Reclamation. Bottom line, the project is on track and on time.

Samuelson also spoke briefly about the possible formation of the Bonita Water District. He explained that the Merced board of supervisors will be considering this at their January 28 meeting. If supported, it will be submitted to LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission)  which must approve the creation of non-profit governmental organizations. The board thanked Samuelson for his report.

The CWD meeting continued with acknowledgement of no agenda changes and then a recess to the GSA board. Resource Manager Doug Welch explained that the opportunity for public comment on the revised GSP will continue for another month. He said hopefully the hearing can be closed next month and the board will be able to approve the revised GSP.

He handed out to the board information from Davids Engineering describing the feedback from the SWRCB staff. Two more items need to be addressed in the plan. One regards domestic well mitigation with the language to be adjusted when a property owner applies for assistance when a domestic well has gone dry. It needs to be stated that there will be a response within 24 hours rather than a number of business days. The second item concerns interconnected surface water. Welch said they were told that these two items can be dealt with after the GSP revision is submitted and approved. Another item involved interim measurement of groundwater levels in the monitoring wells. He said that if results in at least ten out of 36 monitoring wells show that interim groundwater levels are dropping below what is in the plan, then no more than 75 domestic wells can be projected to go dry without further action required.

In response to a question, Welch said that the SWRCB could approve the plan at its mid-April meeting sending it back to the DWR, which would then have up to six months to give its approval… the point being that the GSA would be back under the jurisdiction of DWR rather than the State Board.

Welch asked the board to consider a task order from Davids Engineering for preparing the annual report of the Subbasin. The amount requested is $93,000 with Chowchilla’s share at 51 percent. The board gave its approval and then moved back into regular CWD session at 1:50 p.m.

Office Manager April Garay delivered the treasurer’s report which showed a beginning balance on December 1 of $17,383,863.41, receipts of $1,127,204.04, disbursements of $1,060,055.22 and a resulting ending balance on January 1 of $17,451,012.23. It was asked what’s still owed on outstanding water bills. The response was about $280,000 from about 20 growers and it is expected they will be paid. This report was approved along with the warrants list of bills to pay as of January 15 totaling $1,361,259.45.

The budget report showed that financial results are on plan. Director Nathan Ray asked how much water had been delivered by the District during the season. GM Brandon Tomlinson said he didn’t recall the number but referenced the results he had presented at the November meeting. That report showed a total of 103,535 AF delivered April through September.

The minutes of the December 11 meeting were approved and then Director of Operations Chris Mayo gave his monthly report. With ditches now dry, there had been lots of mowing and spraying. Brush piles had been burned on the newly acquired properties and the last of it will be cleaned up during the Madera County burn day coming up. President Schuh asked about ditch cleaning that can now be done. It was said that a special meeting might be needed to approve some significant ditch repairs. Mayo’s report included a listing of work done repairing and maintaining the district’s vehicle fleet.

GM Tomlinson said he had nothing special to report and his handout showed current storage behind Buchanan Dam at 72,250 AF and behind Friant at 231,975 AF. The snow accumulation totals statewide are at 103 percent of normal for this week but 91 percent of normal for the Central Sierra region. He said the NOAA weather forecast called for equal chances of above or below precipitation in the next 30 days.

The directors had no individual reports and at 2:07 p.m. the board moved to closed session for what was expected to be a short session on a real estate negotiation.

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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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