By Don A. Wright
Author’s note: Before we get into the Friant report I want to share with you. The Valley Veterans Water Forum will take place in Clovis on April 1st from 10am to 2pm at the Clovis Veterans Memorial Building 808 4th Street. You’re all invited. I’m proud and thankful that contributions from WaterWrights’ clients Grabow Drilling, Farmers Fertilizer, Duarte Nursery, Roscoe Moss and Vista Consulting have made this event possible.
The Friant Water Authority board of directors met at the Hilton Garden Inn in Visalia on Thursday, March 26, 2026. This is a new venue for the FWA meeting. Last time I attended a meeting it was at the headquarters in Lindsay. After the meeting they had BBQ they cooked right there. The problem was it was a bit small, the boardroom not the portions served, that was great. The building is older and the organization has outgrown it. We see that happen all the time. There was talk about remodeling and making the boardroom bigger but it would have to be four times as big.
The Meeting
Things kicked off a bit later than the scheduled 10:30am open session. Chairman Rick Borges called it at 11:03am. There was a report from Closed Session given by attorney Julie Gantenbein about an approved settlement with the Porterville and Terra Bella Irrigation districts. Friant has also reached an agreement with the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency and Center for Biological Diversity. This is the heart of the subsidence issues on the Friant Kern Canal and it’s good to see some progress made between farmers. I don’t know what the radical enviro law firm Center for Biological Diversity has to do with anything but then I don’t sit in closed session.
Cliff Loeffler prayed and it was announced Edwin Camp has resigned from the Arvin Edison Water Conservation District. Scott Spitzer has been named as his replacement. Maggie Suarez has lost a family member and there were condolences offered and we at WaterWrights wish to add ours.
Tom Barcellos said Johnny Amaral is lucky he’s not been attacked after getting Eric Limas to move from General Manager of Lower Tule River Irrigation District to Chief Operating Officer of Friant. As you most likely recall Amaral was COO until Jason Phillips left Friant and he moved to the Chief Executive Officer position. Aaron Fukuda, GM of Tulare ID said Mark Limas is now the COO of TID. Mark was with the Kings East Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Eric and Mark are brothers and well respected in the ag water community.
Kent Stephens suggested a resolution honoring Camp for his many years of service. Edwin Camp has been with Arvin for more than 30-years, most of which he served as a Friant Director. Camp’s history in agriculture and water is generational and his wisdom and experience will be missed. Plus he’s a good cat to hang with.
Action Items
The consent calendar was approved then the board dotted its t’s and crossed its i’s by officially approving Amaral as the new Chief Executive Officer of Friant. Barcellos* asked them to beg for his vote but he did give his approval as well. So, Amaral was unanimously placed in the driver’s seat.
The next item was action on results from Closed Session regarding the cost recovery for the Middle Reach Capacity Correction Project, the half a billion-dollar repairs to the Friant Kern Canal agreements with the Porterville and Terra Bella ID settlement. An ad hoc committee will be formed to oversee this. This was approved by the board.
Wilson Orvis explained there is money, $200 million, in the One Big Beautiful Bill that Friant can use to put in five new pump stations, if I understood correctly. I believe most if not all of the wrangling necessary with the US Bureau of Reclamation has been completed so things are ready to go. Some of the pump stations will go to service the needs of Saucelito ID which is in the midst of the subsidence impacted portion of the FKC. Arriving at the agreements in closed session has freed up the path to go forward.
Orvis said the moving parts include securing right of way, getting bids and change orders from contractors and all the rest of the minutia needed to start this project. He listed many considerations but was hopeful an accelerated schedule can be met to keep 1B3 funds flowing to the Authority to fund the work. Stantec Engineering is helping with this.
Barcellos said he’d like to see how SGMA has impacted the costs of right of ways. Some one from online said inflation is going to run up bills and to keep that in mind.
A motion was made, seconded and passed to follow staff recommendations on this matter.
Reports
Mike Wade and Michelle Paul from the California Farm Water Coalition spoke. Wade is former Executive Director and Paul is the new one. Wade has just retired last month after almost 30-years with the CFWC. He said he used to live next door to Steve Jobs in Mountain View and his father moved the family to Modesto and bought a farm. He started with the Farm Bureau after college and transitioned to the CFWC.
Under Wade’s leadership the CFWC has flourished. Its mission is to educate Californians and others about agricultural water usage. They have reached 29 million online with news and information. Wade shared a short video showing what is being put out by the CFWC’s Cultivate California outreach program. One of the ways they connect with viewers is through recipe influencers, they include ag water news during the message of how to cook. CFWC is also involved in the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley’s communication efforts.
Paul spoke next thanking Wade for his years of hard work and leadership. She came from Farm Credit but didn’t grow up in agriculture. But after college, which included Fresno State, she has been in the ag sector and watching CFWC. She said Wade will stick around in an advisory capacity through at least the summer. They received a round of applause and thanks from Borges.
Water Ops
Ian Buck-Macleod said we did not have a miracle March and instead ran into unseasonably hot weather. We had about normal rain but the heat has melted more than half the average snowpack. There is a storm heading in next week that will provide some help. Conversely, the Army Corps’ flood actions are not extensive. There aren’t large releases from reservoirs because there isn’t much snowpack left to require it.
Buck-Macleod next spoke about the Spring X2 Line and the Port Chicago standard. There has been excess inflow to the Delta. The Jones Pumping Plant has been pumping away but the salinity requirement at Port Chicago along the Carquinez Straight is going to cause a drop in pumping. However, conditions should improve in late April and May. The USBR just bumped up the south of Delta allocation from 15 to 20 percent. He said this is more conservative than what Friant has projected.
The upper San Joaquin River has had a large snowmelt early. This is causing some reservoir juggling. Friant has a 100 percent Class One allocation. Buck-Macleod said the Undelivered Restoration Flows are at 10,000 a/f and that will be available to Class One contractors. There will be a Friant funded ASO flight within a week so they’ll soon have
some new data to help estimate storage needs. Friant contractors need to take their carryover from Millerton Lake before any Class One water can be used. Also, there should be a good amount of SJR recapture from the Banta Carbona facilities.
Katie Duncan had the unenviable task of reporting on golden mussels. She did have some good news that the contractors have been good and keeping costs within budget. Dudek Engineering conducted a vulnerability assessment along the Friant Kern Canal. Duncan said there is hope the water chemistry of the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada may be a bad fit for the mussel.
Affairs
Amaral gave the federal and state legislation report. He said state consultant Mike Villines is traveling. There are a few bills that may have some impact on the water situation. They are keeping a close eye on the situation. There are a couple of items from the state budget that look promising.
Amaral said sometime this summer he hopes to cohost a tour of the salmon efforts on the San Joaquin River with USBR’s Dr. Don Portz. That’ll be fun.
Amaral reported on the federal side and the 1B3 has been a boost. However, the games in DC continue as the TSA hasn’t been funded due to a shutdown and that’s hurting air travel. Oklahoman Mark Wayne Mullens is the new Home Land Security Director and it is hopeful this will help. Of course the strikes in Iran are causing panties to bunch up.
Spitzer reported on his recent trip to Washington DC with Austin Ewell and John Bezdek that Amaral wasn’t able to be a part of since it was going to take him 36 hours to fly from California to DC. Spitzer reported they were able to visit with congressmen and Department of Interior representatives.
O&M
Chris Hickernell reported on the work crews have been doing to keep the FKC running smoothly as possible. There are problems with trash and nomads seeking water front property. He gave a pretty fast report but he had to wrap it up quick due to closed session taking so long.
Blueprint
Austin Ewell reported the unified water plan developed by Stantec and the California Water Institute at Fresno State University is up to chapter six. This plan is an amazing effort to quantify and qualify water plans needed to preserve agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley. Ewell said this will help updating the state’s water plan.
Ewell said there have been some changes to the Blueprint board and this is true. A couple of the representatives of large commodity groups are no longer employed by the large commodity groups.
CEO
Amaral said there are close to 200 RSVPs to the May 21st Bakersfield annual FWA meeting and dinner. The place holds 300 so sign up. Form 700 economic statements and an ethics training are required to complete and turn in. There is a directory of Friant members being prepaid.
Finally, Amaral thanked Limas and welcomed him to the team. Barcellos said he believes Limas will outshine the previous COO. That meeting adjourned at 12:43pm for lunch. The Hilton made good chicken, even though I was wearing a cowboy hat and not a chickenboy hat, I liked it. Looking forward to seeing that they can do with beef.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2026 by WaterWrights and DAW
*Tom Barcellos is a good hang too. Remember he’s the guy who can predict the weather looking at hog entrails. Maybe not the guy, but he knows someone who can.
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, Attorney Julie Gantenbein, Superintendent Chris Hickernell
