By Don A. Wright
The Friant Water Authority board of directors met at the Bello Vita Event Venue in Visalia on Thursday, August 28, 2025. Director Kelly Hampton of Delano Earlimart Irrigation District was chairing the meeting. I don’t have information as to why FWA Chairman Rick Borges wasn’t available. We hope all is well.
The Meeting
Things got rolling at 10:42am with Director Cliff Loeffler asking the Lord for wisdom. Can you imagine if all the government meetings began this way?
There was no public comment and the consent calendar was the first item. Under the consent calendar there was an item about CEO Jason Phillips, one of the water world rock stars. He’s planning on moving to Scottsdale Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. He’s living in Fresno now it is a lot of work to travel as much as he does to fly out of the local airport. So, good for him. This was listed as a modification to the employment agreement. The consent calendar was passed.
Action Items
There were two action items, items directors will vote on unless tabled. These are different than informational items where the board is asked to listen to reports to enrich their information diet. Both the action items were given by CFO Wilson Orvis since they dealt with financial matters.
Orvis spoke about the Friant Kern Canal repairs, Phase I budget and spending plan. This includes the pump stations, that haven’t been built yet. This prompted Director Steve Kissling to ask why do the feds want to close out Phase I without the pump stations completed? It got a bit complicated as government bookkeeping is wanting to do. If I understood correctly the payments will come through (although I wouldn’t swear all of Kissling’s concerns were fully addressed) under a differently named accounts category. In any event, the detailed report is a public document and the item was passed saved Porterville ID Director Brett McGowan abstaining.
The next action item was also given by Orvis and it dealt with the OM&R budget. That’s Operations, Maintenance & Replacement, I think. If an expenditure is over $100,000 – even if budgeted it must be brought to the board for approval. I think inflation has necessitated raising that amount. However, if the expenditure is already contracted it can go through without a full board review. Since it’s already been reviewed and approved. There had to be two votes since the item dealt with not only the canal budget but the overall budget. This also required two roll call votes and both passed.
Updates & Reports
Next Ian Buck-Macleod gave the water report. He said there has been and will be more monsoon moisture coming into the state. It rained in Fresno this past Tuesday. It usually gets a little muggy in the Valley around this time of year and even a few sprinkles. But it came down with enough force to turn on windshield wipers.
Back to the report. Buck-Macleod said the intertie on the Delta Mendota Canal and the California Aqueduct had a power failure. It was fixed in less than a day. There have been some bugs in this pumping station. I think there was a fire a while back. The federal Jones Plant will be out of operation for a brief time in the near future for some maintenance.
San Luis Reservoir is tracking close to normal with many different “colors” classifications, sitting in the reservoir. On the Friant side So Cal Edison had to release upstream storage on the San Joaquin River which benefited Friant. The 100 precent allocation is holding. The restoration flows may start up next week to help glide in the salmon with cold water. There was some Delta recapture this past June. That means some water sent downstream for fish could be returned to the system in the Delta.
External Affairs
COO Johnny Amaral said the state legislature and the Governor are trying to draw up redistricting of congressional races. This is unconstitutional but that doesn’t seem to matter to them. The super majority party has a tough case to make that this isn’t self-serving and promoted to a great deal for political theater. In response there is now an effort to split the state east and west, carving a new state from all the counties along the California coast save the Del Norte, the most further north.
On the federal side most of the D.O.G.E. cuts at the Department of Interior are finished and the young man leading that effort has returned to the private sector.
Amaral said FWA and the San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority are working together to raise funding. And lastly he said every Friant member but two have signed up for the off site gathering where the following year’s policy is hammered out. He’s looking for 100 percent participation. He didn’t shame the late signers in open session by naming them.
O&M
Just regular Operations & Maintenance was the next time. Superintendent Chris Hickernell said crews are working to keep up with the spray paint Picasso’s trying to decorate FWA property. The branch office in Delano needed to be spruced up a bit. It started with plumbing and went from there.
Lots of clean up and painting on the facilities up and down the Friant Kern Canal. Hickernell said there has been water testing as well and routine maintenance.
Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley
Austin Ewell, interim Executive Director said there are plans to have a large group meeting in September. The plan is to get EPA Region Nine Administrator Josh Cook to Fresno to headline this meeting and share what the feds are doing to implement the Executive Orders regarding water in California. [Note: Since this report Cook has resigned from the EPA.]
Ewell said the unified water plan being put together by the California Water Institute at Fresno State, Stantec Engineering and the Blueprint is moving along. The Farmer to Farmer effort where farmers from the San Joaquin Valley and the Delta get together to collaborate is taking it on the road and will be held at the next ACWA meeting.
Phillips said Friant has been the founder of the Blueprint. It is a way to get the overall needs of the Valley to the feds. Recently Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum toured the Delta and he was presented the Blueprint’s plan to implement President Trump’s Executive Orders and that has been moving around upper management at Interior.
Another example is the above-mentioned Josh Cook. Cook has taken the Blueprint plan, turned it into a letter to the President and is working to help bring about the implementation. Good for him. [Only he resigned and things a still a bit up in the air.]
SLDMWA
Orvis reported a good, positive movement with San Luis Delta Mendota. Collaboration is much better now and things move smoother.
CEO
Phillips started with showing a video from last week’s Urban Water Institute conference. Cook was the keynote speaker. All of the known candidates for the new General Manager of Metropolitan Water District were in attendance as was Met WD Chair Adan Ortega. He
tried to run a video of an interview I conducted with Cook. Unfortunately, far left tech gremlins foiled that plan.
Phillips said his son in the Navy will be soon stationed in Hawaii. That was that at 11:45am. We then broke for a lunch of chicken, even though I don’t wear a chicken boy hat I do eat the white, skinless, portions of the yard burd.
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FRIANT WATER AUTHORITY
854 N. Harvard Ave., Lindsay, CA 93247, Office 559/562-6305 Email:information@friantwater.org www.friantwater.org
The Friant Water Authority is a Joint Powers Agreement with 15 districts to operate and maintain the Friant Division of the Central Valley Water Project. Water from the San Joaquin River is diverted at Friant Dam at Millerton Lake to the Madera/Chowchilla Canal to the north and the Friant/Kern Canal to the south. More than one million acres of mostly family farms and numerous communities get their surface supplies from the Friant Division.
Board: Chair Rick Borges
Staff: CEO Jason Phillips, COO Johnny Amaral, CFO Wilson Orvis, Water Resources Manager Ian Buck-Macleod, Engineer Katie Duncan, Superintendent Chris Hickernell and Attorney Don Davis.
