By Don A. Wright
The Friant Water Authority board of directors held its Executive Committee meeting on Monday, June 16, 2025 at its Lindsay Headquarters and on Microsnot Teams. For the first time, perhaps ever in the history of the world, I was able to open the Teams meeting without a hissy fit. Now I can see those assembled but I can’t hear them. However, I expect that to soon change when the scheduled 10:00am open session start kicks in. The meeting began at 8:30am in closed session.
The Meeting
Chairman Rick Borges call things to order at 10:00am on the dot and he said there was no reportable action from closed session and no one had a public comment. The minutes were approved and things got rolling when Friant CFO Wilson Orvis reported on the Operations, Maintenance and Repairs budget for fiscal year 2026.
OM&R
Orvis led the committee through a Power Point of the budget and the process. There are annual reviews by staff and that information is compiled and presented to the OM&R committee in June. This year that initial meeting started in March. This gave staff more feedback to work with leading up to a series of meetings that lead to today.
Orvis said the request is for today’s Executive Committee to further the draft OM&R budget report to this month’s full board meeting. The full board can then trigger a 60 day comment period culminating in an approval at the August board meeting.
Some of the details include a cost of living adjustment based on many other reports such as the Consumer Price Index. The CPI shows some increases but a three percent increase is indicated. The dewatering of the Friant Kern Canal is on a three year cycle. The last year was 2024 so that makes 2027 the next dewatering year. Dewatering years generally push the OM&R costs up as that is when the intense maintenance is performed.
The focus for the proposed budget includes fleet electrification requirements, heavy equipment replacements and major maintenance projects. If I understood correctly health insurance increases may be reduce from 10 to 20 percent possibly. Looks like participating in the Association of California Water Agencies’ insurance Joint Powers Authority pays off.
There are some deferrals of five fixed asset replacements until 2028 so as to not stack all the costs on a dewatering year. The problem with electrifying the heavy truck fleet is coming up with more certainty of using a hybrid trucks that cost $113,000.
Borges added that new committee members have worked very diligently and he praised them for bringing energy to the process. He said at this time Friant needs to have two electric trucks by the end of 2027 but there are many possible changes between now and then. There is litigation and other signs of hope California’s insane electric vehicle mandate is up against the reality wall and this can all change. President Donald Trump took federal action and as I understand it CARB, the California Air Resources Board, has been defanged, or spanked or some such long overdue action to restore actual operativity to the system. So, we’ll see what happens with that.
Major Maintenance
Major Maintenance is a separate category since those projects are as Orvis said, “One and done.” Or they are of an urgent time frame. This includes gate actuator upgrade, SCADA, road seal maintenance (depends a lot on the price of oil) and others, mostly IT projects.
One such IT project is a server infrastructure disaster service. Orvis said most of the system is controlled from hardware in a closet at the HQ. He said it would take 60-days to restore a flood/fire/earthquake/cyber-attack. They could scrape by on canal operations by sending crews out to do some manual changes. Other functions such as email, payroll and a bunch of other stuff would be crippled. Hopefully, someone on staff has been trained in emergency mimeograph skills, carbon paper technology and such. Also, the current system is five years old and needs an upgrade. This is a fairly standard timeline for IT software and hardware updates.
Special Projects
There are special projects that are funded from a different account but tie into the OM&R. Last year $1,136,458 was spent on this and the 2026 estimate will be $1,277,204. This is a divide between the Valley’s east and westsides. On the east there are costs associated with SGMA and on the west costs associated with the San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority expenses.
There’s still $1.75 million in a USBR pump back construction grant and there is a $400,000 flood diversion and recharge grant from the Department of Water Resources left over.
The last category was routine OM&R. There is a more than $500,000 increase due to weed and pest control, Cost of Living, insurance and some other expenses. Orvis pointed to some significant decreases due to staff performance – so good for them.
Borges said there are costs out there beyond the control of Friant, such as inflation. Director Edwin Camp asked about the increase of fuel costs due to the Consumer Price Index. He felt it was volatile but wanted to know how it was figured into the budget. Orvis said in California the price of fuel doesn’t often go down. How true and unfortunate for all of us. And let’s not forget the $2.8 million February 2026 payment for the FKC repairs.
The committee voted to send the recommended budget to the full board. Borges thanked Orvis and other staffers for their hard work. Orvis deflected the recognition to staff in his usual humble way.
Discussion & Direction Reports
Next Ian Buck Macleod gave the water report saying the North of Delta Storage is doing well. He believes Shasta is going to actually be in better shape than expected. Folsom Reservoir has been staying within projected parameters.
The Delta constraints from D-1641 was a bummer and temperatures along with water quality has reduced pumping by about 50,000 a/f. There could be a 20,000 a/f draw from the drought pool. Buck Macleod is keeping a close eye on the situation and has been vocal to the Bureau over this matter. What happens is this: if the USBR can’t deliver on its commitment to the senior water rights holders on the San Luis Delta Mendota system it will take water from the San Joaquin River. For the first 60 years or so that never happened. But as the government continues to cut the surface water deliveries (by more than 50 percent since the mid-1970s) there have been zero delivery years for Friant.
Buck Macleod reported Friant shouldn’t have a spill with the increased inflows so the Class One supply is safe but there won’t be any Class Two supplies if I understood. The restoration allocation hasn’t changes but there have been more than 440 adult salmon returned to Friant and the other tributaries. The releases from Friant will be for cold water below the Dam.
SLDM Update
Jason Phillips, FWA CEO reported there is a good deal of activity to start up the Phase One portion of fixing the Delta Mendota Canal. There is a $30 million grant for this and how that will be cost shared and that has yet to be worked out. Next month’s SLDMWA meeting will include a major workshop on this. He expects a large discussion to take place along with a large contingent of Friant folks in attendance.
The Delta Mendota Groundwater Sustainability Agency has concluded in its Groundwater Sustainability Plan – the first two feet of subsidence on the DMC will have no impact. Only after the first two feet would cost allocations be invoked. Friant doesn’t believe that is a good path as it doesn’t share the costs with the pumpers along the canal who have a stake in subsidence.
CEO Report
Phillips continued with his report saying the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley will be voting on a Milk Producers Council paper concerning implementing President Trump’s executive order. This is an outline of what the Executive Order could achieve if adopted. This order could yield a significant amount of surface supplies. The Water Blueprint will be meeting this Wednesday at Fresno State University, I think. You might want to double check time and location.
The meeting then adjourned at 11:14am. Go be good to yourself and each other.
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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 Jim Erickson, Vice 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.
