The Exchange Contractors board of directors met on Friday, February 4, 2022 at its Los Banos headquarters. The meeting will be a combination of in person and the non-Zoom GoToMeetings. I don’t know why but I find GoToMeetings a little more difficult to tune in. Also Ex Con doesn’t broadcast sound, just screen shots or the agenda and reports. One must dial in to get audio. I’m not complaining. I used to have get up before everyone went to bed to drive across the Valley in time for their meetings. I do miss hanging with them
but the almost $5 a gallon gas prices tempers my longing to hang with them. Today’s meeting went fast – not Buena Vista Water Storage District fast – but less than an hour. I’ve been to Ex Con meetings that took three hours or more to play out.
The Meeting
Executive Director Chris White took roll at 9:00am and a quorum was present and the agenda accepted.
The reorganizing the board of directors was next. I expected this would have been a done deal worked out in advance. That was not to be. Jim O’Banion, Central California Irrigation District was the Chair for at least the two decades I’ve been attending Ex Con meetings. Mr. O’Banion’s passing last year required change. It wasn’t a power vacuum up
for grabs. It was a shock that had to be dealt with by folks who had worked with O’Banion for some many years. Eric Fontana from CCID became a member of the board.
For the Chairman office Vice Chair Chris Cardella was nominated and so was Mike Stearns. Jim Nickel nominated Stearns and it died on lack of a second. Fontana nominated Cardella and that was seconded and approved. Cardella nominated Fontana for Vice Chair and that died from a lack of second. Nickel nominated Stearns for Vice Chair, it was seconded and passed. The previous office holders were re-upped. Nickel was nominated for treasurer and Executive Officer White for Secretary. This was passed. Someone commented it might be good to have the chair rotate every year or two.
Water Report
Water Master Adam Hoffman reported demands are starting to pick up and Ex Con was moving 420 cfs. Friant is releasing 451 cfs and 216 cfs is making it to the Mendota Pools. Storage across the state is low with Shasta at 36 percent with 1.6 million a/f. Millerton Lake is doing better at 53 percent which would be about a quarter of a million a/f. All the upstream San Joaquin River at 39 percent with 237,000 a/f.
Delta inflow is 13,924 cfs and the federal Bill Jones Plant is pumping 833 cfs. The State Harvey Banks Plant is pumping zero.
Ex O Report
White gave his report saying the lack of rainfall and low inflow to Shasta indicates this will
be a critical year allocation. There is 319,000 a/f in San Luis Reservoir on the federal side.
Legislatively the congressional portal to dip into US Bureau Reclamation funds has opened. Ex Con is working with the Valley Congressional delegation on this. The Merced GSA is going to issue its pump caps and ordinances. White said Merced County has responded well to input.
The Del Puerto Dam design applications are in and the committee is weeding through them. There was nothing to report on drainage matters. White said the museum/new office project in Los Banos is moving forward. The property title has been transferred to the City of Los Banos. If I understood the construction will costs about $150,000 and there is the opportunity to do some fundraising since the museum is eligible for donations.
Policy Report
Steve Chedester gave the water policy report saying although progress is slow there is some moving on the fish control structure. He said folks are waiting for the USBR to get to the 30 percent design milestone. Same with Reach Three on the San Joaquin River. The SJR Restoration has a shot at infrastructure bill money.
SJV Water Blueprint
White volunteered to represent Ex Con on the Blueprint board. The Blueprint has organized as a 501 entity and the Ex Con board tabled this last month so the member’s home boards could review. I guess they reviewed because the board voted unanimously to have White take a seat. Good for the Blueprint to have White.
Government Oversight
Consultant Dave Cory reported nitrogen management zones have been set on the township scale. He said determining the nitrate impact throughout the Vadose Zone, the space just below the roots and just about the aquifer, is the goal. He said this is going to be a very technical process. As will be a similar project to manage salt in the groundwater in the Central Valley.
Cory said the Westside Coalition is in a Priority Two Basin nitrate wise and will have to take the management zone approach for nitrate discharge. It will require all the dischargers to unite in developing a plan. The first step is to mitigate for impacts on domestic drinking wells. The coalition has been looked at Priority One Basins and taking notes. Cory said ag needs to lead this and start now or it will never catch up. This will most likely entail a significant cost increase by 2023 – from $7.00 per acre to $10.00 per acre.
Cory was asked how the Priority One Basins are dealing with drinking water. He said there are fill stations providing reserve osmosis filtered water. Bottled water is being delivered to some households with impacted wells. I’ve heard it is much more effective to deliver water in the gallon jug size than the 16 ounce bottle size. There is some on-site filtration taking place as well. The more-shallow domestic wells are usually hit hardest. Recharge could provide benefits and this would allow some work between the GSAs and the Coalitions. The funding for these efforts comes from all the discharge permit holders in a management zone.
Legislative Report
White said the big story is the new congressional district that will take in all of the Exchange Contractors’ area. State Assemblyman Adam Grey said he’ll run. Congressman Jim Costa’s reordered district will run to the east of Ex Con and take in more of Fresno.
Attorney’s Report
Andrew McClure reported the Bureau withdrew its application for a relaxation of standards in the Delta which denies the State Water Resources Out of Control Board a chance to monkey around with it. The Delta biological opinions are being challenged in court like crazy by enviros and NGOs. If I understood McClure the case against the current biops isn’t as strong as some would like you to believe. There is a lawsuit by the enviros in Sacramento County trying to get the court to forbid the Bureau from making deliveries as they want all the water to go to the environment.
Four Managers
Jarrett Martin, GM Central California Irrigation District said staff is constructing a long crested weir on one of the ditches.
John Wiersma, GM San Luis Canal Company said they delivered a lower than expected amount of water. All the repair projects are on schedule and the annual meeting will take place in March, all are welcome but here will be no lunch this year. That caused a lot of declines to the invitation.
Jeff Bryant, GM Firebaugh Canal Water District said they’re wrapping up repairs and ready to go. Randy Houk, GM Columbia Canal Company said much the same thing.
The meeting then went into closed session for eight items of litigation and one personnel item. It was 9:56am when the open portion closed to open the closed portion. That was that.
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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
Chris Cardella Columbia Canal Company -Chair, Mike Stearns Firebaugh Canal Water District -Vice Chair, James L. Nickel-Treasurer San Luis Canal Company, Eric Fontana -Director Central California Irrigation 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.
