By Don A. Wright
The board of directors of the Consolidated Irrigation District met at its Selma headquarters on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. CID meets at the same time as Semitropic Water Storage District in Wasco. Semitropic serves a good lunch, one of the best. The Semitropic boardroom is bigger to better accommodate dining. You could fit three, maybe four Consolidated boardrooms in Semitropic’s space. But Semitropic’s attorney doesn’t bring homemade snacks like CID’s does.
Central Kings GSA
The meeting took up at 1:04pm on the word of Chairman Ray Moles and the first part is the Central Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency. The meeting began with Harvey
Singh, local grower, who was upset because General Manager Phil Desatoff didn’t return his visit with a call. Desatoff apologized and Water Master Walt Frost will be on whatever Singh’s problem was like green on grass.
Desatoff reported the Aquaterra project is caught in the proverbial “two weeks” until the necessary permits are completed. Attorney Lauren Layne reported it appears the State Water Resources Control Board is going to take the Kaweah Subbasin off the meat hook and return it to the Department of Water Resources.
CID is in the midst of a 218 election and since the CKGSA meets as part of the CID board meeting they all decided to meet on the 5th next month. The votes can be counted that day. So there will be no August 13th meeting on that regularly scheduled date. And the meeting will be held at 10:00am at the Kearney Ag Center near Parlier. With that the CKGSA meeting was adjourned at 1:15pm.
The Meeting
There was a seamless transition from GSA to CID with no additions to the agenda, no conflict of interest and the consent calendar was passed. I believe one item was tabled until next month and Director Tom Chandler asked about a financing matter.
The State of California’s government has in the past raided the Local Agency Investment Fund during budget deficits. Director Paul Sihota has also served on the local transportation committee known as Measure C. He said Measure C was invested in a Fresno County managed fund. If I understood correctly CID is also invested in the Fresno County fund. LAIF isn’t known for its high return on investments. But if there can be a better return on the district’s funds the board has an obligation to invest wisely.
Financials
The board next considered the accounts payable item. Most irrigation and water district boards in the Central Valley are made up of farmers. This is always a popular item. Not because directors enjoy paying bills, I think, rather, because they enjoy making deals. When A/P comes up the average director buries his entire being in the details, the room gets quiet and the first one to come up for air generally has a comment something like, “We could have got those bearings $.27 cheaper if we shopped at Bob’s Tractor Shed instead of Oliver’s Auto Parts Emporium.” The board passed the item to pay its bills.
There were three resolutions, one each for Fresno, Kings and Tulare Counties, CID’s boundaries include land in all three. The resolutions were to include assessments on each of the district areas in the respective counties. All three passed with very minimal discussion. The auditor’s report was moved up earlier in the agenda since the lady accountant was present. It was blessedly short in relation to some auditor reports I’ve witnessed. CID had a clean report and is in a good position. There was some talk but the report was accepted.
Water Report
Desatoff gave the water report saying CID has 90,000 a/f in storage at Pine Flat Reservoir on the Kings River. He said there is enough water to run past the currently scheduled end of July. At the August 5th meeting they’ll know more. The preferred usage for the extra water is to run it down small ditches so dogs and children can enjoy some cool recreation. That or get as much to the farmers as they can so they won’t pump as much groundwater.
They could also recharge the extra water into basins. The district could also carry part of it over and or sell it on the market. There was decent rain this past rainy season so the price of water is low. Another thing about CID is the east side of the district gets more recharge due to soil type and canal configuration. The optimal use could be moving the extra water to the district’s westside for recharge.
Grower and supermodel Liz Hudson suggested advertising the August 5th meeting as the decision point for the end of deliveries. She thought and I agree, this could generate a bigger turnout than the 218 election.
Desatoff gave the groundwater report and said the depth to groundwater has risen since 2023 but it is starting to go back down. Chandler thought it strange the exact opposite was taking place in nearby parts of the Kings River Conservation District.
Land Matters
Next Desatoff spoke about the district’s efforts to purchase more land for recharge basins. The goal is an additional 1,000 acres and there are sellers approaching the district. Much of this will depend on the outcome of the 218 election. The ideal land will be sandy soil and not too far from a canal. Forty acres contiguous is best since that decreases the amount of meters, turnouts and other considerations at any one recharge location.
Assistant GM Michael Carbajal said after CEQA and other hoops are jumped through a basin construction project can begin in September. There needs to be vines removed at another site. There also needs to be a final design for each project. Constructing even highly beneficial projects in regulatory California is no easy task.
ACWA Committee
Layne is chair of the Association of California Water Agencies’ legislative committee. She is an incredible asset for the San Joaquin Valley in that position. She was unanimously supported by the board to continue in that seat.
218 Election
Carbajal said there has yet to be many ballots returned but that’s OK, for now. The
postmark might be August 5th but if the ballot doesn’t get there before the meeting it won’t count. There will be another mailing to voters to remind them to turn in their ballots.
There will also be a webinar to explain the 218 procedure at noon on July 16th. It will be recorded.
Moles said the per acre assessment is $140 in Madera ID. The cost per acre foot is $90. Hudson said CID has much cheaper water than many of the neighbors. She said the district may want to change its benefit assessments that deal with pumped verses surface water.
There are rumors of text messages, phone calls and mailers in opposition to the 218 election but no one in the room had experienced that firsthand. Layne said yesterday was the deadline to object to the election and nothing was received.
Closed Session
At 2:41pm the meeting went into closed session for lawsuits, personnel or real estate matters. So, with that, go be good to yourself and others.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2025 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
