By Don A. Wright
The Friant Water Authority board of directors’ Executive Committee met at the FWA headquarters in Lindsay on Monday, October 19, 2026 and on Teams. You know the one. In case you’re new to water meetings, and forgive me if this sounds pedantic, committees are formed to do deep dives on subjects requiring some specialization. This keeps the main board meeting from foundering in the minutia of micro-administrating.
Friant is a Joint Powers Authority, meaning its membership is made up of two or more agencies. In this case, agencies such as water or irrigation districts that take water from the Friant Kern Canal. The Executive Committee reviews matters that will come before the entire board and makes recommendations as to how the board should vote. A committee divides the oversight and helps the whole organization move forward. Its recommendations are not binding on the full board but serve as considered opinions.
I’m only mentioning this because when I first started covering water meetings Westlands Water District used to approved committee recommendations mostly without comment. I found that strange but after a while I learned the committee’s true function. It’s not to hide decisions from the public. The committees are under the same Brown Act as the board and their meetings are held in public.
The Meeting
Things got going for open session at 9:30am, the scheduled time. Kelly Hampton Chaired the meeting as Rick Borges wasn’t available. The minutes were approved, roll call taken and there were no public comments. The meeting began at 8:30am and there was no reportable action from closed session.
Action Items
CEO Johnny Amaral told the committee about a proposed agreement with Tulare County about flood flows. Tulare County has a need for flood water control. This proposal started about a year ago. This report dealt with how Friant can provide this service to the county. There are a few things to consider and they include being sure introducing this water into the Friant Kern Canal will meet a few conditions. It must be subordinate to the FKC’s conveyance needs and adhere to further requirements per the US Bureau of Reclamation.
There are concerns about water quality and amounts and what obligations this places on Friant. Attorney Julie Gantenbein assured the board Tulare County will indemnify Friant for any problems. Arvin Edison Water Storage District General Manager Jeevan Muhar said his district has a similar agreement with the City of Bakersfield and that includes payment for any sediment removal and a processing fee for the water moved. The committee agreed to pass along to the full board a recommendation to enter into this agreement.
The next item was an agreement with Tea Pot Dome WD that is temporary and comes with no cost to Friant. As part of the FKC subsidence corrections project there is needed material and a staging area for construction. Tea Pot Dome has a stormwater basin, if I understand correctly, partially owned by the City of Porterville with Tea Pot Dome acting as agent for the city. This is the property where Friant would receive a temporary easement for four years to do the work on the Phase II of the FKC refurbishment. The committee approved sending this one on to the full board.
Informational Items
Maggie Suarez told the committee now is the time to set its meeting calendar for 2027. She invited the committee members to send her any concerns. CFO Wilson Orvis said the Executive Committee can set these dates independent of the board provided there are no conflicts.
Amaral gave an update on the Middle Reach Capacity Correction Project. He said the plan is to allow a deadline extension to allow the bidding contractors more time to sharpen their pencils and give staff more time to review the bids.
Water Operations
Ian Buck -Macleod said there is some precipitation coming this week. He expects a half inch on the Valley Floor and up to an inch in the high country for the Central and South Sierra Nevada Range. He said there’s a lot of talk about El Nino but that has yet to determine what type of year. He said water quality has determined the Delta pumping. It has gone good for the most part but there are king tides and a Kelvin impact coming from El Nino that will have some impact on salinity intrusion into the Delta. If there isn’t a decent amount of precipitation they may have to cut back in November to one unit. The overall situation for San Luis Reservoir looks good. There are 90,000 a/f more storage than average for this time of year.
Buck-Macleod said the low point of Millerton Lake may drop below 250,000 a/f but there is a tiered program to dewater the Friant Kern Canal to get an early start to the repairs and maintenance underway. There are also contingency plans to move diversions if necessary. There will be four Airborne Snow Observatory flights and Friant is paying for one of them.
On the golden mussel front there will be a CEQA and NEPA action needed but the Regional Board has provided permits and he pointed out the good deal of work Katie Duncan did to bring this about. Recapture flows on the San Joaquin River will be staggered to give the participating districts an opportunity to perform maintenance on their facilities.
San Luis Delta Mendota
Orvis said Friant is following the Phase One Subsidence Project on the Delta Mendota Canal closely. He said there has been a good deal of work and the preliminary portion is expected to be buttoned up by December.
Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 9:57am. The committee gave Hampton a B+ for running the meeting. I have to give him an A+. It was informative and to the point. Very little wasting of time and everyone sure seemed to come out of it knowing what they needed to know. Go be good to yourselves and each other.
DISCLAIMER OF RESPONSIBILITY; WaterWrights strives to provide it’s clients with the most complete, up-to-date, and accurate information available. Nevertheless, WaterWrights does not serve as a guarantor of the accuracy or completeness of the information provided, and specifically disclaims any and all responsibility for information that is not accurate, up-to-date, or complete. WaterWrights’ clients therefore rely on the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of information from Waterwrights entirely at their own risk. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not represent any advertisers or third parties.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2026 by WaterWrights
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 Johnny Amaral, COO Eric Limas, CFO Wilson Orvis, Water Resources Manager Ian Buck-Macleod, Engineer Katie Duncan, Superintendent Chris Hickernelln & Attorney Julie Gantenbein
