The Exchange Contractors board of directors met on Friday, August 6, 2021, at its Los Banos headquarters in person and by telephone. There was a pretty good turnout in person and a pretty good turnout by phone as well. The meeting began at 9:00am and Chairman Jim O’Banion had everyone salute the flag.
The Meeting
After roll call and introductions Executive Director Chris White presented the minutes
which were approved and there was no public participation. Director of Finance & Human Resources Joann White gave the expenditures and finance reports. They were also approved. I remember back in grade school we all thought girls weren’t as good at math as boys. As it turns out in the ag water world the positions of trust involving finances and therefore math are overwhelmingly held by women. That’ll teach you to not get too puffed up with preconceived notions.
Water Report
Water Master Adam Hoffman reported there is 225 cfs being released at Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River with zero water reaching Mendota Pool. SJR Restoration flows may start up again in September. San Luis Reservoir has negative federal storage meaning all the water in the reservoir technically belongs to the state. Due to bookkeeping the feds have 13,000 a/f but are drawing down at 3,000 a/f per day. The Shasta watershed is experiencing the second driest year of inflow in the past 100-years. Pumping at the Delta was being conducted by one unit, one pump for the entire State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project from the federal Jones Pumping Plant. Currently Jones has one pump going and it’s all dedicated to CVP. The state Banks Pumping Plant is running one pump also.
Ex O Report
White said Hoffman gave a very accurate report and there will be more on operations in closed session. White said there was a tour with some legislative folks and some more tours planned for Southern California elected folks.
White reported there have been good agreements with the Triangle T WD folks. The Mendota Pool Group did some pumping in June and July and are now off. A workshop for water transfers will be coming up.
Policy Report
Director of Policy Steve Chedester reported there isn’t much happening with the Mendota Pool fish screen. They are waiting for a 60 percent design milestone. The fish recapture facility is being shepherded by the US Bureau of Reclamation. The financial agreement between Central California Irrigation District and the Bureau is about to expire but the Bureau folks are in favor of renewal. Hopefully this happens before October. Chedester said that’s when the Bureau shifts its focus to massive report writing until the end of the year if I understood.
Chedester said the Mowry Bridge work has been completed and O’Banion claimed Columbia Canal Company General Manager Randy Houk said you can take it at 100 mph. I don’t know how he knows that so any law enforcement reading this – hearsay.
The San Joaquin Valley Water Blueprint is having a meeting today to take stock of the needs and continue attempts to match them with solutions.
Chedester reported on Orestimba Creek and the byzantine permitting process necessary to get some work completed by mid-September. He said reports have been submitted to the state’s water boards and they haven’t heard anything. Coincidentally I’ve been trying to get in touch with the State Board for the past three weeks and have received the sound of crickets. Shame on them.
The Los Banos Creek Reservoir is coming along as well. Chedester said there are still some permits needed. Ex Con has been working with the Central Valley congressional delegation to get some funding in the upcoming budget. He said there is more news about Del Puerto Canyon coming up later and San Luis Delta Mendota WA is working to get state funding.
A New Dam in California?
Engineer Andy Neal Woodard & Curran reported the Del Puerto Canyon Dam project is getting exciting. He said there is now a two page RFQ process to get to the RFP. Request of Qualifications/Request for Proposals. He’s working with prospective bidders to walk through the dam building project. On the permit side they’re working with the Bureau for the EIS and NEPA permits.
The reservoir operations are being modeled by Dan Steiner for NEPA and CEQA consistency. He said Congressman Josh Harder may bring some federal funding but a financial assistance agreement with the Bureau has to be completed first. Neal said everything is in the Bureau’s court but he is optimistic that process will be locked down soon. The public outreach will have to ramp up as road relocation and other matters come closer. He named a lady – Alice something – as having met with White and Anthea Hansen GM Del Puerto WD to take over outreach.
Neal said PG&E has stalled out Stantec Engineering’s power line relocation work. PG&E, as you may know, has been poked from every direction about causing wildfires and is a little gun shy at the moment, wanting contracts in place before going forward.
State Mischief
Consultant Dave Cory reported on the Regional Board’s nitrate management plan. The grid has been reduced to the township level. The immediate goal is to find how much nitrogen has leached past the root zone and how much of that makes its way into the aquifer on a township by township basis. A groundwater model developed by the State Board is being considered to help retrieve this data. Cory said a series of targets (he said the one size fits all needs to be avoided) have to be submitted by next July and a plan developed to address this. Cory said this is a huge effort and to me it sounds like another reinvent the wheel SGMA style program. Groundwater quality and related data should be pretty well known by the time this is over. Well testing is going to be an incredibly big part of this effort to determine drinking water quality. If that quality isn’t met who will pay for mitigation and how will mitigation be accomplished? That’s the financial question. Cory said any one or thing that discharges nitrates will be tapped for funding.
O’Banion asked who will be keeping track of the cities. O’Banion said agriculture is being singled out to carry the weight of water quality. Cities get away with dumping wastewater into streams and letting the flows dilute the discharge. His question is something similar going to happen with groundwater, some way out. Cory said the first 10-year phase of this massive project is going to benefit from in person meetings.
Elected Gov’t Mischief
White gave a report on legislation, both state and federal. He said there is a federal bill for $24 million of SJR restoration efforts and another slug of quarters found in the couch cushions for Del Puerto Dam. There was also a hearing by Congressman Jared Huffman, former NRDC staff attorney on matters dealing with ocean fisheries. These matters have a way of splashing inland. Some of the greedy corporate enviros like to link everything to the pumps as surely as they like to link everything to climate change. If they have the sympathies of a powerful member of congress they can do some damage.
Legal Report
Andy McLure an attorney from the Minasian Law Firm reported the State Board has issued curtailment orders that are in effect for a year and gives the State Board executive director leeway to amend the orders as she goes along. He said the folks with storage interests want to sue before a storm comes along and all the water has to flow through the reservoirs. If you’re a stream diverter you want to wait until the orders are issued.
The Natural Resource Defense Council has sued over the approved temperature control plan on the Sacramento River. The NRDC has been suing for years over this matter. Right now the State Board hasn’t opened up comments so the NRDC lawsuit has to wait.
There was a lawsuit that made its way to the Supreme Court over SGMA. The Merced County GSAs of which Ex Con belongs has asked to be removed from the case and not have to stick around any longer. Sorry I didn’t understand the nature of the case. In the court of claims there is another suit that McLure is trying to get Ex Con untangled from. That was all for open session.
Four Managers’ Reports
Jon Wiersma, GM San Luis Canal Company said SLCC is preparing to wrap up the season and get ready for next year in case it’s another dry one.
Jarett Martin, GM CCID said the housing market in Los Banos is booming and the expansion of urban land is impacting farmland. He said he’s trying to prepare for next year.
Jeff Bryant, GM Firebaugh Canal WD said he’s working with growers to stay between the lines of allocations. FCWD is also doing environmental work on a canal that has already had enviro work completed two years ago. The drainage management efforts are going well now that Palmer McCoy is heading up the project.
Houk reported CCC has started harvest and things are being nursed along. There are new wells being developed in preparation in case next year is like this year and dry. As for driving 100 mph over the bridge he said you could if you wanted but only in one direction or you’ll wind up in a Mendota Pool seepage pond.
That was about it for this meeting and the board adjourned into closed session at 10:05am. They had 10 items, one personnel and nine legal.
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SAN JOAQUIN RIVER EXCHANGE CONTRACTORS WATER AUTHORITY
Main Office: 541 H Street, P.O. Box 2115 Los Banos, CA 93653 Office 209/827-8616 www.sjrecwa.net Email: contactus@sjrecwa.net
DWR SGMA Identifier #5-022.07
The Exchange Contractors cover almost a quarter of a million acres in Fresno, Madera, Merced and Stanislaus Counties.
Mission Statement
The Exchange Contractors Water Authority mission is to effectively protect the Exchange Contract and maximize local water supply, flexibility and redundancy in order to maintain local control over the members’ water supply.
Board
James O’Banion-Chair Central California Irrigation District, Chris Cardella-Vice Chair Columbia Canal Company, James L. Nickel-Treasurer San Luis Canal Company, Mike Stearns-Director Firebaugh Canal Water District
Staff
Chris White-Executive Director, Steve Chedester- Director Policies & Programs, Adam Hoffman-Water Resources Specialist, Joann White-Director Finance and Human Resources, Darlene O’Brien- Administrative Assistant, Paul Minasian-Attorney
History
From the Exchange Contractors’ website: www.sjrecwa.net The San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors hold some of the oldest water rights in the state, dating back to the late 1800s. The rights were established by Henry Miller of the legendary Miller and Lux cattle empire. In 1871, Henry Miller constructed canals to divert water from the San Joaquin and North Fork of the Kings Rivers for irrigation of his vast acreage. Today, several of the original Miller and Lux canals are operated by the Exchange Contractors.
Although Henry Miller’s canals served the irrigation needs of his estate in the western portion of Fresno, Madera, Merced, and Stanislaus counties, in order for more growth on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley to occur, more water was needed. In 1933, the United States Department of Interior undertook the Central Valley Project, a vast undertaking to build dams throughout the great Central Valley including the Sacramento, American and San Joaquin Rivers. When construction of the Friant Dam (north of Fresno) was under consideration, feasibility studies showed that irrigation development of the Friant Project between Chowchilla and Bakersfield depended upon water being diverted from the San Joaquin River at Friant Dam and brought to the east side of the valley, via the Friant-Kern Canal.
To accomplish this, the government asked the heirs of Miller and Lux to agree to “exchange” where they receive their pre-1914 appropriative and riparian water from the San Joaquin and Kings Rivers for guaranteed deliveries of “substitute” water from the Sacramento River by means of the Delta-Mendota Canal and other facilities of the United States. This agreement, known as the “Exchange Contract,” along with the accompanying “Purchase Contract,” were reached in 1939 and that led to the name “San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors.” In normal years, the Exchange Contractors are guaranteed 100% of their contractual water allotment (840,000 acre feet) and in critical years the amount is 75% (650,000 a/f).
The Exchange Contractors, however, did not abandon their San Joaquin River water rights. Instead, they agreed not to exercise those San Joaquin and Kings Rivers’ water rights if guaranteed water deliveries continued through the Delta-Mendota Canal or other facilities of the United States.
