By Don A. Wright
The Friant Water Authority board of directors met at the Hilton Garden Hotel in Visalia on Thursday, September 24, 2026 and online using Teams made by Mircosnot. The meeting was scheduled to begin in closed session at 8:30am. In case you’re a new reader or perhaps haven’t spent a portion of your life sitting in the board meetings of water agencies that are political subdivisions of the California State Government – the law requires public matters to be open to the public. That’s why there are open sessions and closed sessions. The Ralph M. Brown Act allows discussion behind closed doors for personnel matters, real property negotiations and all manner of lawsuits; anticipated, existing and initiation of litigation. Friant had all of that save the personnel matters and is required to announce what action was taken in closed session.
The Meeting
The open session was begun at 10:33am and Chairman Rick Borges said a claim against Friant was rejected in closed session. There was one public comment, very sad to hear Madera Irrigation District’s Director Carl Janzen, as fine a man as you could hope to meet, lost his wife. Director Cliff Loffler led everyone in a prayer for wisdom and peace for the Janzen family as they go through this time of change. Amen. Roll was taken and there was a quorum. Somewhere in there the consent calendar was approved with nothing removed for separate consideration.
The Budget
CFO Wilson Orvis gave the Operations, Maintenance and Repair proposed budget for fiscal year 2027. He led us through a power point presentation that traced the progress of developing the budget. He apologized for punishing O&M Committee members who were told it would be one meeting and it turned into several starting last April. The draft was accepted at last month’s meeting.
Orvis said there is a bump in the fixed asset portion of the budget and this will be a de-watering year. Every, I think it’s done in five-year intervals, the Friant Kern Canal is drained and repairs and maintenance that take place below the water line are cranked out. He and the financial staff try to limit as much extra expense as possible during de-watering. A couple of expensive equipment items were deferred until this year so that caused an increase.
Golden Mussel Expense
Orvis introduced Friant Engineer Katie Duncan to discuss the additional expenses for golden mussel mitigation. Duncan said the cost is about $3.5 million. This will involve consulting, treatment and permit filing costs. She said eradication isn’t the goal but rather to keep the little boogers from spreading from the FKC and limit its encroachment upstream. She noted the Cross Valley Canal expenses will only be borne by the districts that participate in deliveries from the CVC.
Duncan said there are State Water Resources Control Board permits that have to be secured and approved. Friant is covered for a few chemicals with the major focus being copper sulfate based products. This is $3 million of the budget. Much of the treatment is experimental. The state has yet to issue an emergency declaration regarding the golden mussel but has issued an emergency declaration for rain that hasn’t happened yet in case El Nino comes on strong.
If I understood correctly Duncan said the reverse flow water coming from the CVC will be treated. The overall costs will depend on the results but they may be contained in future years if the plan works and the cost of chemicals don’t increase.
CEO Johnny Amaral said as much the same indicating the upfront costs are expected to be the big hit. I asked who’s involved in this and Dudek Engineering is overseeing the permitting and monitoring of the program. As of yet there has not been a RFP issued for the treatment portion of the program.
Orvis resumed his layout of the OM&R budget and asked COO Eric Limas to comment on some of the comments members sent about the proposed budget. Lindsay Strathmore and Orange Cove IDs both had comments ranging from Warren Act cost issues to algae treatment.
Orvis said there are two large FWA wide O&M issues: water supply coordination and monitoring and engagement with the San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority and related Groundwater Sustainability Agency matters. He said debt service is on a good course and shouldn’t have any hiccups this coming year. Two motions were suggested, one with everyone and one without inclusions from Pixley ID. The entire OM&R budget was approved by the board from a roll call vote.
Next the General Membership budget was presented by Orvis. He said in consideration of how the member districts must balance their books staff works hard to estimate costs so higher expenses won’t be experienced. There are cash calls throughout the year and having a higher than expected cash call can disrupt things. So, this budget is conservative in projecting expenses in a way that won’t surprise anyone.
A couple of items were; Jordyn Neves has been officially hired as the External Affairs & Communications Manager. Good for her. I’ve had the pleasure to work with Neves and she’s a winner. There is also a program that brings together growers from across the Central Valley to communicate and find common ground. Friant pays for a portion of this Farmer to Farmer program and it is yielding good results. It always helps to get to know each other and talk.
Orvis proposed a 2.4-percent cost of living allowance be considered. This passed. The next item was approving a resolution to update the list of authorized signers for Friant’s bank accounts. That would include Orvis, Loffler and Limas. He said that makes three directors and two staff members to provide duel signatures on the checks. This passed as well.
The last action item was from Water Resources Manager Ian Buck-Macleod who gave the board a request to approve an extension of term for a Technical Advisory Committee to the Restoration Administrator. About three decades ago the Natural Resources Defense Council sued everyone they could about reintroducing salmon into the San Joaquin River up to Friant Dam. This is known as the SJR Restoration. There is a Technical Advisory Committee that was scheduled to expire this year but the board voted to extend it. So, that’s what that was about.
Water Report
Buck-Macleod said Governor Gavin Newsom issued an emergency declaration for flooding in case El Nino hits hard with a lot of precipitation. The news at Lake Shasta is about temperature control of the Sacramento River for salmon migration. All in all upstream storage in the north has been good.
There was an outage at the pumping plant located at O’Neill Forebay as transformers were replaced and it appears they got the job done a day early. Good for them. Storage at San Luis Reservoir has a big chunk of drought pool and carry over for the west side users.
At Millerton Lake on the SJR there is good storage at this time of year. The 100-percent Class I allocation is still holding strong on the FKC. There is a chance this winter could be one of the top 20-percent wettest years in California. Buck-Macleod said in light of this the de-watering will be moved ahead as much as possible so conveyance can move recharge water down the canal.
The Air Borne Snow Observatory will fly again this year with partial financial support from Friant and others. The Department of Water Resources will take over modeling of the data gathered from the flights. That should expand the results. Buck-Macleod said the golden mussel needs to have the permitting and California Environmental Quality Act reviews in place and Duncan said that is almost completed and should be in place in time.
Buck-Macleod said the facilities on the downstream SJR will have some maintenance shutdowns that can impact some for the restoration flow recaptures. He said there is also a chance of a spill at San Luis Reservoir. This confused me to no end when I first heard about this. How does an off-stream storage spill? The state and the feds pump water from the Delta down the California Aqueduct and the Delta Mendota Canal into the O’Neill forebay where it’s pumped up hill into the San Luis Reservoir. One would think – if you don’t want the lake to spill quit pumping water into it.
While an onstream reservoir like say, Millerton Lake on the San Joaquin River, has too much inflow it spills over Friant Dam and that storage is lost. At San Luis a spill means water that could have gone to storage isn’t pumped into the reservoir and that storage is lost.
External Affairs
Consultant Mike Villines called in from Sacramento and said there is $15.5 million in the state budget for Friant. That’s a win and good news. Other good news is the state legislature is on vacation until January. The gov has until next Wednesday to sign or veto bills. He’s traveling a lot for his pre-presidential campaign run. He said mostly it’s been a good year.
There are two tribal water bills that are still troublesome. They give special religious privileges to native tribal water use. No telling how that doesn’t violate church and state. Villines said he believes the gov will sign.
Amaral gave the federal update saying Congress is also on recess to go campaign for reelection. Congressman Jim Costa will bring a big bunch of water interests into a room to talk. That will be held in Fresno sometime soon.
CEO Report
There will be a big deal pump station dedication for the new Teapot Dome ID turnout. Amaral said the annual Friant Off Site strategy session is coming up soon and he said there is great participation this year. The materials for these meetings will be available at least a week in advance.
O&M Report
John Robinson gave the Operations and Maintenance report saying the chip seal project is taking place. This project is going to encompass 20-miles of FKC banks that will be treated. He said most of the usual maintenance work is going on and it’s on schedule. That includes weed spraying and such. There are a couple of bridges across the canal that are being repaired. Inspections are taking place to document the bridges, right of ways and guardrails so better reference will be possible going forward.
Other Reports
Austin Ewell gave the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley update and said the Unified Water Plan has been completed and has been sent to the US Bureau of Reclamation and there will be a review in October. The Blueprint has prepared a draft of what water concerns the next governor needs to deal with and that will be presented to the next governor. The UWP will also be considered for inclusion into the DWR task of developing nine million new acre feet of water supplies.
That was that for this month’s Friant meeting and it adjourned at 12:02pm. Go be good to yourselves and others.
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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 Johnny Amaral, COO Eric Limas, CFO Wilson Orvis, Water Resources Manager Ian Buck-Macleod, Engineer Katie Duncan, Superintendent Chris Hickernelln, External Affairs & Communications Manager Jordyn Neves & Attorney Julie Gantenbein
