The Friant Water Authority board of directors met at the Bello Vita Event Venue in Visalia on Thursday, October 24, 2024. Also on this day was the American Pistachio Growers Recharge event. Along with Sustainable Conservation APG hosted a day long series of educational panels at the World Ag Expo in Tulare. The topic centered on recharge. In the early afternoon the topic switched to pest control.
The Meeting
Chairman Jim Erickson called the meeting to order at the scheduled10:00am start. Director Cliff Loeffler asked the Lord Jesus for His blessings on the meeting and to bring wisdom to all decisions being made. He also moved to accept the consent calendar. That was seconded and passed.
Action Items
There were only two action items. The first one was the meeting calendar for 2025. CFO Wilson Orvis gave the board a rundown of how the proposed schedule dodged all the other meetings and events throughout the upcoming year. The board approved.
Water Resource Manager Ian Buck-Macleod gave the board an overview of the proposed 6th amendment to the agreement between Friant and Patterson Irrigation District to convey San Joaquin River Restoration water. The board agreed.
Water Report
Buck-Macleod reported on water operations saying so far it has been very dry this water year. Temperatures have been higher than normal but things are quickly shifting to more normal fall conditions. He reported a Delta water savings of 200,000 a/f so far this month from ditching the Fall X2 protocols for adaptive management at the end of September. The federal Jones Plant has been running all five units but for a scheduled maintenance period that has cut things back to three pumps.
Buck-Macleod gave a run down of the Friant Division standing. There has been less inflow than anticipated at Millerton Lake. But it wasn’t a great decrease from expected supplies. This is partly due to fewer Southern California Edison releases upstream of Friant Dam.
The temporary permit for SJR recaptured flows had no comments, so that’s looking good. The Airborne Snow Observatory flights are being set up. This is more a matter of financing than anything. Director Edwin Camp asked how many watersheds are not covered by ASO and how much it would cost to cover the state. I believe the answer was a large sum of money.
CEO Jason Phillips reported the 2025 Pig Spleen Water Report is in the bag. It’s going to be wet between December 15th, 2024 and March 15th, 2025. For the past three years in the fall, the dissecting of a hog’s spleen has been a somewhat accurate indicator of the upcoming weather patterns.
External Affairs
COO, Johnny Amaral reported with the elections going on, Washington DC and Sacramento are too busy campaigning to do as much damage as normal. He moderated a water panel at the recent ACWA Region Six and Seven meeting at Harris Ranch and he thanked Tulare ID’s Aaron Fukuda for participating. He reminded everyone there is no regular board meeting next month. Instead there will be an offsite meeting in November. This is the annual get together to plan out and prioritize the upcoming year’s strategy and emphasis.
O&M
Superintendent Chris Hickernell gave the operations and maintenance report. He said there was a glitch in what is in the printed board packet and the online board packet. He said FWA has exceeded 120 days without an accident or injury, I believe he said that. Crews are working to eradicate aquatic weeds. Herds of goats have been grazing the Friant Kern Canal banks and while that has been very efficient, they’re still going to have to spray some places. Evidently you can lead a goat to a weed but you can’t make him eat.
Water Blueprint
Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley Interim CEO Austin Ewell reported the MOU the Blueprint signed is starting to yield some results. The BP and Southern California water agencies, including Metropolitan WD are scoping out sites for recharge. Ewell also said the Farmer to Farmer meetings are also yielding some program plans. This is focused on restoring conveyance in the South Delta. The BP also cosigned a letter asking the state assembly to get real about the regulatory process. It’s too much and needs to be reined in.
Phillips added the Farmer to Farmer meetings is growing into an organization aligning Delta and San Joaquin Valley farmers to work together on moving projects along. Dredging the South Delta would be helpful all around. He said the budget isn’t big because participants are donating much of the time and expertise.
San Luis Delta Mendota Matters
Orvis gave the board an update saying the Second Amendment Committee met and discussed how Friant tackled the subsidence problem on the FKC and how this relates to subsidence on the Delta Mendota Canal.
Orvis also reported the SLDM budget is up for review and a workshop will be held in December.
SGMA
Attorney Don Davis said he has something positive to say. Good for him. He said the Kaweah Subbasin is monitoring a subsidence management program for the FKC. He thanked them for this and asked Fukuda to speak further.
Fukuda said the key to understanding what the goal is includes better communication between everyone. He said it is being called the FKC Management Monitoring and Action Plan – FMAP. So far there is no appreciable subsidence taking place on the FKC’s route through the Kaweah Subbasin. Fortunately much of the FKC runs against the foothills and the soil is either rocky or sandy.
To be safe, said Fukuda, a one mile buffer zone around the FKC and this area will be monitored. If there is any subsidence detected management actions will be automatically triggered. These actions include limiting new wells and increased recharge. He said the GSAs are reviewing all well permits and if any show up in a subsidence triggered area it won’t be approved.
There was a side question about why it is referred to as the F-MAP, instead of the FKC-Map. If you sound it out the why becomes apparent.
CEO Report
Phillips said you need to be subscribed to the E-Water-Line publication. He said it is a good way to stay informed. He said you’ll find out about protecting Friant water and budgets and water supply and the Voluntary Agreements. He said for the directors to come to the offsite meeting – he said there is no more valuable time in his opinion.
He said the Delta makes or breaks the rest of the states water supply. At the end of this cycle of politics – right before the elections – there are about a dozen milestones in Delta regulations. The Plan of Implementation for the Voluntary Agreements and the Unimpaired Flows will be released tomorrow. Approval won’t be until next summer. This will show how the VAs will impact the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. The Biological Opinions are at the end of this month. The US Bureau of Reclamation will hold a final EIS on November 13th. In December they’ll sign the Record of Decision, before a new administration can be installed. He said the biops are very impactful to how water is moved through the Delta. It’s a shame something this important can’t transcend politics and power grabs.
Next Phillips reported when he started at Friant his daughter will 11 years old and on her next birthday she’ll be 21 and graduating from college. His son who serves on a US Navy Submarine surfaced long enough to vote. He urged everyone to do the same.
Loeffler made an announcement that the Chair of the Lindsay Strathmore ID, Jeff Tienken passed away. There will be a memorial soon.
Lunch was ready. The meeting adjourned at 11:00am. I believe this is the shortest FWA meeting I’ve attended in 20-years.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2023 by Don A. Wright
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.