By Don A. Wright
The board of directors of the Consolidated Irrigation District met at its Selma headquarters on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. The meeting is scheduled to begin at1:30pm but the Central Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency met first, beginning at 1:00pm. I stepped in the middle of the GSA meeting when folks were talking about almonds, for
example, and how much water a mature orchard requires. What is the best available technology to keep track of this usage?
General Manager Phil Desatoff said as a water management entity slapping meters on everything would be the easiest and he believes the state is pushing for this. But it’s the farmers who have to pay. Grower Austin Hubbell spoke saying there is never an exact average and the best possible estimate won’t be perfect.
The Meeting
Chairman Ray Moles had a death in the family and Tom Chandler, Vice Chair was running the meeting. Prayers for the Moles family. The regular district meeting was called to order at 1:20pm. There was no public comment. Director Paul Sihota asked to pull the payables from the consent calendar. Desatoff explained where some of the money goes. For instance, CID purchases its chemicals from Gar Bennet and that includes training and other
matters beyond just chemicals. CID sends out a request for bids annually. That bid request will soon be available to the board for review. There were other questions but it sounded like between Desatoff and Lt. General Manager Michael Carbajal the answers were satisfactory enough to approve the payment of the bills.
Correspondence
Tonya Ruiz told the board the Kings River Water Association has asked for money, a cash call, like more than $167,000. That’s what it costs to get that Kings River water from the snowflake to the crop. There was another $7,000 bill for the fisheries management program. Director Tony Lewis made the motion to pay the fishing bill saying, “I’ve caught enough fish out of that river.”
Action Items
Next was the water report. Desatoff said the groundwater levels throughout the district have risen by more than six feet. Carbajal said to expect a 90 percent water year. There will be a three month run starting May 1st maybe. CIC currently has 81,000 a/f in storage
at Pine Flat to start this season with and there are entitlements coming in throughout the season. There will be about 11,200 a/f in storage by the end of the season. It was emphasized this is an estimate based on similar historical years. Carbajal said the estimate is as far from wrong as can be, but that doesn’t mean it’s accurate.
Desatoff said they err on the side of caution. Each of the 28 members of the KRWA receive entitlement as the snowmelt flows into Pine Flat Reservoir. As water is released into the river this rate and amount is divided up by the KRWA members. There are a lot of variables based on based on how fast the snow melts, how much water is absorbed into the ground before it ever gets to the reservoir and other factors. It’s a bit complicated and I don’t fully understand it or ancient Chinese astrology. I also heard this was originally determined by the size of the shotgun. Over the course of the past century this entitlement has settled down and is now administered by a schedule.
There was a question about the groundwater levels being in part a result of recharge. Yes, of course. The grower asked if the start date for the season would be moved back wouldn’t there be less pumping demand during the hotter part of the season? His thought was more surface water later would reduce overall pumping. If I understood this would force more
pumping earlier in the season. Whether you cut the head or tail off it is still a 90-day run. Also, if there is a flood release, according to the KRWA schedule, CID will get a bigger share of the water.
This all boiled down to staff recommends starting the CID run on May 1st and the Lone Tree Branch of the system will be decided later. If I understood. Sihota asked staff to send out an email survey to the growers to find out when they want the start date. One of the growers spoke up saying this is the decision the board was elected by voters to make and he believes that decision will be accepted and expected. Or, after more talk it was
suggested starting Lone Tree on the 1st of May and CID on May 8th. Chandler said start them both on the 1st, he believes there is enough water. The board gave Desatoff authority to adjust this as needed.
Land Acquisition
Desatoff said there is a $1 million grant for constructing recharge basins. There is still $1 million on the books from an earlier grant to buy land. He said to stay ahead of this the district needs land to convert to recharge. CID has been pretty proactive about recharge. There is a good deal of land with sandy soil in the district.
One of the growers in the room asked if a landowner were to sell to the district would there be any tax benefit. Attorney Doug Jensen said in certain cases this could happen but it would have to include the threat of eminent domain condemnation. Chandler asked if CVID could do a reverse auction similar to what Westlands Water District did in years past. That was neither rejected nor accepted, so could happen.
It was also noted Rubicon Gates have been incorporated into CID’s system. This has been a help with establishing habitat that has earned the district atta boys from Sacramento. Good for them. Rubicon is an Australian company making some inroads in the American market.
Landowner Recharge
Director Greg Thonesen said they’ve been reaching out to growers big and small to get input on how to incorporate landowner credits for recharge. He asked Desatoff about the
Kings River Subbasin coordination and how it’s coming along. Desatoff said this isn’t a popular subject with the downstream GSAs. The McMullen Area GSA is still in a hard core data collection and not willing to commit to this.
The Sacramento brain trust that developed the SGMA law knew something was needed but didn’t know how to deal with groundwater and the state not to have to pay for it. So, they did what they do so well and saddled the citizens with unfunded mandate. The subbasins formed GSAs and have to work together. Millions of dollars have been invested in developing plans. A big part of this has been collecting data. Not a great deal was known about what water underground was up to. One thing discovered in the Kings River Subbasin is water flows downhill and that down hill is the McMullen Area GSA.
The McMullen Area GSA is to the west of CID and sometimes when water is recharged it flows underground to the MAGSA. In addition to a lag in developing data, there is a lag in developing water accounting principles all feel are fair. Until that happens some of the recharge credit efforts will unwind slower than the actual amount of water recharged.
One of the growers said the Central Kings GSA Growers’ Advisory Group is a good idea but it has its own attorney and he was concerned about having two attorneys. There is an attorney who is a member of the advisory group and he gives this grower concern. The attorney who is a member of the growers group doesn’t represent anyone but himself. Yet the speak was concerned there could be legal trouble, repeatedly warning Jensen to tread carefully.
At this point grower Steve Jackson spoke up saying not to let the idea of future threats take away from capturing water from the Kings River now. He said he sees neighboring subbasins to the south quite possibly going to adjudication. Getting the water off the river will be paramount to avoiding further problems. This is true. The one thing that truly mitigates for SGMA is recharge.
That discussion lasted a while and when the smoke cleared Chandler called the public portion over and out. Open session was adjourned and closed session commenced at 2:47pm. That was that. Go be good to each other and yourself.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2024 by Don A. Wright
CONSOLIDATED IRRIGATION DISTRICT – 2255 Chandler St, Selma, CA 93662 Telephone; 559/896-1660
CID covers 145,000 acres mostly in South Central Fresno County. Surface water supplies: Kings River CID is its own GSA
General Manager – Phil Desatoff, Attorney – Doug Jensen, Water Master – Walt Frost, Controller – Tonya Ruiz
Board of Directors – President Ray Moles, Tony Lewis, Tom Chandler, Greg Thonesen, Paul Sihota
