By Don A. Wright
The board of directors of the Consolidated Irrigation District met at its Selma headquarters on Wednesday, September 10, 2025. There were a few water folks gathered before the meeting. You know, water celebrities, growers and underappreciated and over-worked chefs who bring homemade goodies around the holidays. A good bunch to while away the minutes before the meeting starts.
The GSA Meeting
The meeting began at 1:00pm as the Central Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency.
After self-introductions and no public comments General Manager Phill Desatoff reported on Kings Subbasin coordination. There is a great deal of complexity in how a GSA can claim certain “colors” of water. For instance, if there is seepage from the Kings River how should it be accounted for?
There is natural seepage along the river but if the run is short a GSA downstream won’t get credit for seepage upstream. But when there are longer runs downstream seepage from the physical portion of the river will be credited to the area where it will take place. Likewise, water diverted from the river will have seepage credit only to the land benefiting from the turnout. I think I got that correct, I’ll bet you $5 Desatoff will let me know if I don’t.
Desatoff also reported studies show 1.65 a/f native yield within the CKGSA and that’s the highest amount in the subbasin. I asked if anyone knew which GSA in the subbasin had the least amount of native yield. No one knew for sure and attorney Lauren Layne said these figures are still in draft form, so it was just as well.
The next item was the Aquaterra Water Bank in the McMullin Area GSA which is still two weeks away from any substantive news.
Layne reminded everyone the State Water Resources Control Board will hold a hearing on September 17th where it is expected to return the Kern Subbasin back to the Department of Water Resources. The State Board staff report was to do so.
DWR recently held a meeting in Clovis regarding the Best Management Practices for GSAs to follow regarding subsidence. The issue of subsidence is very important because certain soil types, primarily clay, will collapse as the groundwater is pumped. If the underground clay layers collapse the surface elevation will drop. This will cause major problems like what happened to the Friant Kern and Delta Mendota Canals. Layne reported Assembly Bill 1413, a groundwater adjudication bill is on the inactive file.
That ended the GSA portion of the meeting.
The ID Meeting
The Consolidated Irrigation District board meeting was called to order by President Ray Moles at 1:25pm. There was a question about adding an item to the agenda about a potential lawsuit. Layne explained the Brown Act won’t allow it under the current circumstances. However, the directors can discuss it during the board reports agenda item but no action could be taken today.
There were no public comments, or additions to the agenda of course, and no conflicts of interest were mentioned. The consent calendar was passed. The accounts payable were combed through and all questions satisfactorily answered. The board approved paying the district’s bills. Which is good news if CID owes you money.
Action Items
Next the board’s fancy turned to action items. The first request was to pay the Kings River Water Association’s second installment of $7,000 for the fisheries management program. The next item was the substantially larger payment to the KRWA’s second installment of the general assessment for $185,000. Desatoff explained how the KRWA manages Kings
River water rights and allocation, as well as pay for attorney Joe Hughes’ defense of water rights and related lawsuits. The KRWA is an older organization that’s proven its worth many times. The board – I don’t want to say capitulated – agreed to pay the bills. Some of the directors weren’t as up to speed on the KRWA functions and the benefits derived so today’s discussion was good.
The next item dealt with Other Post Employment Benefits. This deals with the actuary tables of retirees. The firm MacLeod Watts Inc has a proposal to provide these services. The board agreed.
There have been 21 Board Of Equalization requests. The board will evaluate them at the next BOE meeting. CID recently passed a 218 Election and that extra chunk of change will fund some surveys and evaluations of channel capacity that will help in allocating distribution during future water delivery runs. There was talk about holding a moratorium on airing the requests. Director Tony Lewis said he’d hate to see a moratorium if some of
those 21 requests are a slam dunk – why make them wait? Director Paul Sihota agreed because the decisions made at a BOE meeting could have a big impact on bank loans requiring two or more water sources.
A BOE meeting could find a landowner who is not currently on CID surface water wanting to get on the system could be added. But would adding another turnout to a CID canal impact others already receiving water on that part of the system? There are a lot of questions associated with this item. Desatoff said there needs to be a time set aside to discuss this in more detail. If I understood the BOE meeting will be at CID headquarters but deciding the date for a full meeting was tabled thanks to Director Tom Chandler wanting to be sure the district can provide all the applicants with accurate, informed, up to date decisions. Director Greg Thonesen advocated to have a shorter, truncated meeting for the easy to decide applications so those growers can get moving. The item was tabled.
Water & Other Reports
Before the water report Assistant GM Michael Carbajal gave a quick update on a minor vehicle accident with an employee. Desatoff said there should be slightly above 4,000 a/f carryover at Pine Flat Reservoir at the end of this water year. There was no SGMA update for obvious reasons.
CID is in the midst of acquiring more land for recharge. Desatoff said Carbajal is doing the work, but he’ll take the credit. This was perhaps the most controversial part of the recent 218 Election. Some believe the best expenditures of funds would be more recharge basins and some didn’t. Those who did won. The land being looked at have certain criteria that must be met as closely as possible; like locations close to canals.
Under the agenda item called Projects Updates Carbajal told the board there is some grant money in the pipeline. He said there is hiccup with the USDA and he expects to hear back by the end of the month so construction can start right away. Desatoff said the feds are just wanting to be sure to check all the boxes to ensure the recharge basin stays in the hands of CID. CID can sell some of the property funded by federal grants but not without the fed’s permission.
Nebraska Basin Phase II
Next the board was asked to take action to award a construction contract for the Nebraska Basin Phase II project. Carbajal said CID bought 100-acres at Nebraska and Walnut Avenues. They are going to turn this into a 50-acre recharge basin with Rubicon Gates and meters. There is a pipeline running through the property and that will have to be torn out. There are two houses and a shop also on the property. One of the houses is falling apart and a magnet for homeless nomads. It’s a proven fact they like waterfront property. It most likely will need to be demolished. The other house is in livable shape and the shop is reportedly pretty nice.
The award amount is $558,000 and for that price it will include a deep ripping as part of constructing the basin. Cal Valley Construction won the award and has done good work for the district in the past. Desatoff said don’t get in Cal Valley’s way, they move fast.
Board Reports & Closed Session
The directors reports included the issue mentioned at the beginning of the meeting. Lewis said landowner Nick Khalon has an issue with a section of a lateral leaking on his property. It was said Khalon was deep ripping and that’s when the leaks started. Every time CID went out to fix it another section would pop open. Desatoff said after a while it’s just cheaper to replace the line and there was a bid put in by Streamline Irrigation, a fine company by the way. Evidently Khalon hired someone to fix it. It wasn’t clear if this repair was made by licensed, bonded professionals or not. But Khalon wants to be reimbursed for his costs, which was actually more than it would have cost him to pay for half of what it would have cost to hire Streamline.
Desatoff said you’d think a grower would be happy to have had a cheaper cost. If I understood correctly, it isn’t district policy to reimburse costs for a landowner to engage private work. Layne said it would be possible for CID to assist Khalon with finding what other landowners are involved in this private lateral and he can ask them for reimbursement. Evidently there is no maintenance agreement with CID on this line. Moles said as far as he knows Khalon used good quality materials on the replacements.
Chandler asked about follow up on investment options. Carbajal said the district is working with Wells Fargo to find opportunities. He said there is one option that allows money to move without penalty. It pays about four percent. He said the district can save on fees and still earn interest. Chandler said the difference between investing with the state or county verses private should be investigated.
There were only two items in closed session: anticipated litigation and a lone real property negotiation. The meeting was adjourned from open session at 3:01pm. Go be good to yourselves 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, Assistant GM – Michael Carbajal, Attorney – Doug Jensen & Lauren Layne, Water Master – Walt Frost, Controller – Tonya Ruiz
Board of Directors – President Ray Moles, Tony Lewis, Tom Chandler, Greg Thonesen, Paul Sihota
