By Don A. Wright
The Exchange Contractors board of directors met on Friday, November 1, 2024 at its Los Banos headquarters. There are some exciting plans developing in Los Banos – exciting for those of us who have spent the past 20 plus I don’t know how many years attending Ex Con meetings. There’s a legend that someday a new building will be constructed to house the Ex Con offices. But not only that, it will house the San Luis Delta Mendota offices and be home to a museum. While it’s true everywhere is historical – everywhere on earth has been here as long as everywhere else – once you mix humans into it, the history starts
becoming more relevant to how we got where we are. The Los Banos area has played a big role in California water. It’s home to the Miller & Lux ranching empire.
Henry Miller and Charles Lux were German immigrants who hoped to strike it rich in California’s gold fields. They didn’t do that. Instead they saw an opportunity to ply their Teutonic trade of butchering in the new world. If you’re going to sell meat you have to have livestock. So they bought a lot of land and ran cattle. Along with that land came water rights. Miller & Lux had a large portion of rights along the San Joaquin River. Much of the land in and near Los Banos has retained those rights.
The feds wanted to supply the eastside of the San Joaquin Valley with water from the San Joaquin River. First they had to strike a deal with the descendants of Miller & Lux who still held the rights to that water. Four water entities: Central California Irrigation District, Firebaugh Canal Water District, San Luis Canal Company and Columbia Canal Company had to agree to exchange their San Joaquin River water for water imported from the Delta. They entered into a contract with the US Bureau of Reclamation to exchange the SJR supplies for water delivered in the Delta Mendota Canal. And that kids is how they got the name, “Exchange Contractors” or officially the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority.
The Meeting
Things kicked off at 9:00am by Chairman Chris Cardella. A quorum was established and it was mentioned by Executive Director Chris White that the flag salute took place earlier at
the Groundwater Sustainability Agency meeting. The minutes were approved and there was no public participation. The board also approved the expenditures from October. This was the introduction to Joanna White’s Finance Committee report. The board approved the finance report. The 2025 draft budget has been reviewed by the home boards. This included the activities agreements. An activity agreement is something – a program or study perhaps – the members are not obligated to fund, but they may do so, if they choose to enter into an activity agreement. The board approved all of this and the finance committee minutes.
Water Report
Ex Con Water Master Adam Hoffman gave his water report. He said Ex Con drew 1,300 cubic feet per second on average this past month. The releases from Friant Dam have two pulse flows coming up before the end of the year. This increases cfs at Sac Dam.
Shasta releases are going to rice decomposition amongst other uses. It sounded like this is about over and Shasta should start filling after some storms hit. San Luis Reservoir is starting to gain storage. Releases from Friant are slowing down. Hoffman said some Northern California storms are expected to start hitting the state. The first one isn’t expected to yield much but there is another storm brewing for perhaps later this month.
The Fall X2 was off ramped at the beginning of the month. There were a couple of slow downs from both the state Banks Plant and the federal Jones Pumping Plant due to some maintenance upgrades and repairs.
Executive Director Report
White reported the SJR restoration program had two meetings recently that involved operations that will impact Ex Con. On the 14th of this month there will be a meeting with the USBR about the Mendota Pool operations. He said this has been an interesting year overall for operations. He said going from the Fall X2 to adaptive management was a big water saver.
Senator Alex Padilla has some legislation in the works to help continue funding the SJR Restoration. White also said there may be a Washington DC trip coming up after the new year. He also said there has been further progress on stopping the subsidence in the Red Top area.
White said the permitting to transfer some water to the Rosedale Rio Bravo Water Storage District is just about complete and that means some of that water in San Luis Reservoir can be banked. A much more efficient way to store water in the age of SGMA.
Policy & Programs Report
Steve Chedester told the board a financial agreement with the Bureau on the design for the fish facilities on the SJR under the restoration program is being signed soon. The 100 percent design for Reach Three – it sounded like that is underway again and there may be construction as soon as next July.
Chedester spoke about November 13th being the date set for a Record of Decision on the Delta Biological Opinions. The Bay Delta Plan update is also coming up. There will be workshops later this month and into December on the Voluntary Agreements.
The Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley has signed an MOU with Metropolitan WD for developing further banking in the Valley.
Water Resources Plan
Chedester also gave the Water Resources updates. He said the Los Banos Creek permitting process is still ongoing. The Bureau and I believe the US Army Corps of Engineers have yet to return any bad news so far. Chedester said if the permitting goes well the next step is construction.
White reported on the Del Puerto Canyon project. He said various engineering options are being looked at. The road alignment biological studies have been finished and that clears the way for the earthwork design. Jarret Martin, General Manager CCID said there is an option to acquire an existing well for the Orestimba Creek project. He said once this happens it’s another step to completing more recharge.
Bay Delta Mischief
David Cory said the State Water Resources Control Board’s expert panel process is moving forward. He said there is a nine question list prepared for guidance of the inquiries. If I understood correctly Cory said it is worded in a way that it will open the door to the state to investigate all manner of things. He said there are many potential changes growers are facing in nitrates control.
I need to look into this a little deeper. I remember the Regional Water Quality Control Board had a project to protect the Valley against salt build up in the soil. There have been huge swaths of land around the world that lost its crop growing vigor due to a build up of salts. So the state initiated the Central Valley Salts program, CV Salts. That has somehow morphed into the car you have to ride around in to deal with nitrates.
Cory said the action plan was released showing how wells would be tested for nitrates. The final draft of the management zone proposal is supposed to be released before next month. Also the next Collaborative Action Plan will meet next week. This is a sister agency to the Blueprint where various interest groups can meet and hash out agreements.
Five Year Plan
White said Ex Con has assembled a voluminous plan with the help of Joann White. This is the work of all the member entities and available on the Ex Con website. That should be fun reading for all. If I understood correctly this is in draft form.
Legislative/Attorney Report
White said the fed’s House and Senate are out of session as are the state elected’s trying to convince folks to rehire them. That’s why there is such a glut of advertising lately.
Andy McClure of the Minasian Law Firm said the Del Puerto Canyon suit is winding up or down. I wasn’t sure which. The Voluntary Agreements verses unimpaired flows isn’t a clear plan at this point. He said there are issues in the document released by the State Board being reviewed by his firm.
Four Managers Reports
Mike Gardner, GM CCC reported deliveries are on average and the system will be shut down for maintenance this month.
Jeff Bryant GM FCWD said his system is also being shut down for maintenance later this month.
John Wiersma GM SLCC said he received a lot of bids for some construction projects. He said it’s all hands on deck to determine which bid is the chicken dinner winner winner.
Martin said October was a normal month. Winter construction includes some inhouse building of weirs.
Informational & Closed Session
Due to the upcoming ACWA conference December’s meeting will be moved to Friday the 13th. Also, State Board Member Laurel Firestone will tour the area sometime this month. There were seven closed session items. Cardella put the lid on open session at 9:46am. That made for a short meeting.
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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 -Chair Columbia Canal Company, Mike Stearns-Vice Chair Director Firebaugh Canal Water District, Cannon Michael-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, Andy McClure-Attorney Minasian Law Firm.
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.
