By Don A. Wright
The Fresno Irrigation District held its board of directors meeting at its Fresno headquarters on Thursday, January 11, 2024. These meetings are in person only and fortunately the boardroom in the new headquarters is full of comfortable chairs located near power outlets. FID meetings usually move along well. I remember when they’d meeting in an old Anderson Clayton brick building that was warm in the summer and cool in the winter and always cozy to the point you hoped no one’s deodorant failed.
The Meeting
Chairman Ryan Jacobsen is very punctual and called the meeting right at 3:00pm. In less than two minutes we saluted the flag, moved items around on the agenda and before I could type this sentence the intrepid District Chief Engineer Lawrence Kimura was testifying at the Cole South Branch abandonment hearing.
There is about 60-acres in an area that wasn’t taking enough water to justify keeping it in the system. This property is also within the urban area of the City of Fresno and near the High on Speed Railroad right of way. There is a stretch of ditch and some piping with related features that need to be filled in with dirt. There are also some easements within the area and the adjacent landowners were offered the land. That ended the testimony and there were no comments from the public.
Director Greg Berberian asked about easements and attorney Jim Boswell judiciously said all easements go with the land. The board asked about cost and it will cost the district nothing. If I understood correctly the land purchase funds came from HSR. The board had to pass resolution no. 2024-01 and 2024-04 for this to go through. The board approved the resolution and two years of staff effort was confirmed and terminated in less than five minutes. I guess the consent calendar was passed as some point previous to the next item.
Finances
The wise and graceful Controller DeAnn Hailey-Stork gave the board as schooling on how things are going money-wise for FID. As one may have guessed FID had a lot of water to sell last year and things are in good shape. The board accepted the report.
Honored
The kind and gentle General Manager Bill Strech took some time to honor some retiring employees. First was Randy Boyd who spent 40-good years with FID and is leaving as a distinguished supervisor. As Stretch said problems don’t occur from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday. While the rest of us are sleeping in a warm bed on a stormy Saturday night men and women like Boyd are dealing with the reality of a sprawling irrigation district and leaks that can occur here and there. The board approved Resolution No. 2024-02. Boyd said this has been the best job he ever had and received a round of applause from all.
Murry Krum was the next employee to be honored for 37-years of service. He said the time went by quickly. In his later years Krum has been the district’s point man on dealing with the homeless folks trying to get that water-front property bargain. Stretch read proclamations from Resolution 2024-03, which he said may sound a lot like the previous proclamation. Krum thanked everyone for their help and said he’s been blessed. Good for both of them.
Water Report
The Assistant kind and gentle GM Adam Claes reported at the moment there is low snowpack in the San Joaquin River watershed but the US Bureau of Reclamation is willing to allow all the Friant contractors 17-percent carryover. He said the Friant Kern Canal is starting to fill.
Claes said FID has 47,000 a/f in storage at Pine Flat Reservoir on the Kings River. He said while things are slow right now last year the total precipitation doubled in March. Almost every wet year for decades has had a wet March.
The next item was to pass a resolution to send to the USBR expressing the district’s willingness to enter into a 215 Water Contract. The board of course did just that. A 215 Water Contract is a document that allows a federal Central Valley Project contractor to receive discounted flood waters, if there is enough rain and snow to create overflow in the system.
Engineering Report
Kimura told the board there are 31 developer projects the district is involved in. Capital improvement projects are on task and there is some sandy soil out there. Plans (drawn by a local engineering firm, won’t name the firm here) for tie-ins with flood control basins are on the razor’s edge of being late.
Kimura reported the High on Speed Rail dance is still being engaged. Stretch asked how many FID facilities are left for HSR to monkey butt around with and the answer is eight. They haven’t completed the four they started. One culvert has kept HSR waiting for three years for AT&T to move a conduit. Kimura said these are the type of problems encountered when you build a railroad next to an existing railroad.
Next Kimura showed a groundwater map of 2021 from a year ago showing water mounding has helped considerably in some areas due to recharge. There were contour maps and colors and the deal is there were two green colors representing flood control areas and wastewater treatment areas.
He showed construction and engineering project photos from all around the district. HSR has closed Central Avenue for who knows how long. There is an intersection at Belmont and Weber in west central Fresno that has had large diameter concrete pipe sitting for years. Director Chris Woolf said it’s been there for so long homeless folks moved in.
Claes next presented the board with a resolution intended to be given to the Department of
Water Resources to qualify FID for emergency funding for portable pumps and moving some dirt here and there for flood flows. The board agreed and passed Resolution 2024-05. Jacobsen thanked the staff for putting this together and developing the relationship with DWR.
Special Projects
The almost all knowing Special Projects Manager/North Kings GSA Executive Officer Kassy Chauhan gave an update on the Big Dry Creek Reservoir reoperations. She said it’s a labor of love but also challenging as the Metropolitan Flood Control ran into a couple of unexpected staffing problems. This project is working with the Army Corps of Engineers and they are actually ready to make this happen. She said ACE is bring its Commander to sign the study deal as a symbolic gesture at a ceremony in Sacramento. Beberian asked why there is signing ceremony for a study. True, this type of thing usually takes place at groundbreakings but it is an opportunity to create some buzz.
More Construction Stuff
Claes said the California Highway Patrol gave vehicle safety training to the FID employees recently.
There is also an infamous, canal undercrossing at Olive and Abby Avenues at Fresno’s Tower District. The urban property abuts the canal and there is no back access. The canal was dewatered, the earthen portions were lined and the lined portions were repaired. And a butt load of trash was removed. There is a curve in the road that if taken too fast will end up with a car in the canal. During the high flows cars and bodies can be swept along into the undercrossing culvert and get stuck. There have been cases throughout history were recovery of bodies had to be delayed until later in the year.
Beberian suggested owl boxes and hawk perches to help cut down on rodents along district canals. Someone said owls are good for gophers and moles but you need a hawk to take on ground squirrels. He asked staff to look into it.
SGMA
Chauhan gave a Sustainable Groundwater Management Act update saying there are three studies being worked on to help keep the Kings Subbasin out the State Board’s maw: confined aquifer, domestic well mitigation and interconnected surface waters. These are the areas with the biggest data gaps. She said a 218 Election may be needed to fund some of the well mitigation. Not something she wants to do, nor really does anyone else. A government agency in California can’t raise a land-based assessment rate without taking it to the landowners – this is known as a 218 Election. But there has to be at least a pilot program to for this mitigation to be in SGMA compliance. And that costs money. Sometimes things can be solved by tying into a city’s existing system as opposed to drilling a new well. Chauhan said the GSAs are learning as they go. Self Help Enterprises is being consulted for the North Kings GSA’s portion of the program.
Chauhan said there was a good meeting back in September with San Joaquin River holding contracts to try to get the surface water process together and fill those data gaps. She said Friant and the Bureau have shown interest. She said the Madera GSP was approved pending lots of corrective action. The State Water Resources Control Board is reportedly hiring a SGMA manager to help it get through this. That may or may not be a good omen for the subbasins facing probation. There will be a special NKGSA board meeting February 1st.
The landowner recharge credit program in the Central Kings GSA has been slowed a bit as the neighboring GSAs want to get a clearer idea of what water where. As a subbasin there is a desire to coordinate this. There is a problem wherein someone gets credits in one area and pumps but the actual recharge is taking place miles away.
Regulatory Affairs
The Kings Water Alliance has submitted a plan to deal with nitrate in groundwater and the Regional Water Quality Control Board likes it. Public comment has been received and it was as if all the letter writers from the usual Non-Governmental Organizations were telepathically connected. It was very similar to the NGO comments received on the GSP; not enough transparency and the timeline is too long.
Chauhan spoke about the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley’s effort to bring more water into the Valley. She said the Blueprint is making progress but keeping the momentum going is tough. The Blueprint is weighing in on the Voluntary Agreements and the Bay/Delta.
Gov’t Stuff
Chauhan said Congressmen Jim Costa is holding a water forum on January 22nd at Fresno State University. There has been some WaterSmart program funding made available in the FID area earmarked.
FID won an award for groundwater recharge from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Good for them. Director George Porter said there are two doors in that federal building – Farm Services and RCS. They need to put a better sign on the doors. He said he gets caught in a loop when he goes there. Chauhan said on the state side there hasn’t been much happening yet.
As I recall protestors who seem to approve of murdering some innocents but not others stopped the state legislators from going to work at the start of the legislative year. It doesn’t matter why they were protesting – they took it too far in a supposedly free society. I think that’s one of the reasons not much has happened in Sacramento.
GM Report
Stretch gave his report saying the Kings River Water Association will have a conference January 30th but most of the KRWA matters are in closed session. Jacobsen will soon become the new chair of that organization.
Directors Beberian and Porter will be going to the Mid Pacific Conference in Reno and meeting Karl Stock who is replacing Ernest Conant as Regional Director for the US Bureau of Reclamation. Stretch said Conant has been a good friend to the San Joaquin Valley and will be missed. Friant leadership is comfortable with Stock.
There will be a special NKGSA board meeting coming up. Stretch said it sounds like the federal side has funding and the state side is getting cuts. Even the Airborne Snow Survey is getting cut in half and that’s a major step backwards.
Porter said under director reports land values in FID are holding their value. That’s one of the concerns when surface water is denied – land without a water source isn’t worth much. Without surface water there is no groundwater to recharge and use later.
Closed Session
The open session portion of the meeting ended at 5:14pm with seven items. That was that for Fresno Irrigation District. Go be good.
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Fresno Irrigation District – The Fresno Irrigation District is located at 2907 So. Maple Avenue, Fresno CA 93725 phone 559/233-7161 and meets at 4:00pm on the third Tuesday of the month at district headquarters. FID is part of the North Kings GSA DWR # 5-022.08
Board
Ryan Jacobsen – President, Jerry Prieto – Vice President, Greg Beberian, Christopher Woolf & George Porter
Staff
Bill Stretch: General Manager
Adam Claes – Assistant General Manager – Operations
September Singh – Assistant General Manager – Administration
Laurence Kimura – Chief Engineer
Jeff Boswell – In-house Legal Counsel
David Burrows – Water Master
Michael Prestridge – Superintendent of Construction & Maintenance
DeAnn Hailey-Stork – Controller
Kassy Chauhan – Special Projects Manager/North Kings GSA Executive Officer
