By Don A. Wright
The Friant Water Authority board of directors met at the FWA headquarters in Lindsay on Thursday, September 25, 2025. I don’t know why the powers decided to hold it in Lindsay, perhaps they’ll share the reasoning. Although I was able to join in on Mircosnot Teams, it was fraught with audio and visual problems. The echo and flange on the sound made it almost unintelligible, the video continually froze and I was kicked out of the meeting a few times. That last problem might have been a prank.
The Meeting
Chairman Rick Borges called the meeting to order at 10:30am on the dot. Inhouse attorney Don Davis has resigned. Bummer because he’s pretty open for an attorney. I didn’t catch the name of the new lady replacing him but I’ll try and find out.
Director and former Chair Cliff Loeffler led the meeting in prayer, asking for wisdom and being an influence for good. Friant employee David Dees recently passed in his sleep. He was a good man and I’m sorry to have learned of this. Loeffler reminded us all of the need to conduct ourselves so we can leave a good legacy such as Dees did.
There was nothing to report out of closed session and the board approved the consent calendar.
Action Items
Ian Buck Macleod explained a proposed Memorandum Of Understanding between the Friant Division Contractors with the FWA regarding the South of Delta Drought Plan Pilot Program. The only Friant members who aren’t participating are the Chowchilla Water District and the City of Fresno. The board approved.
Speaking of cities, the City of Lindsay wants to join FWA. CEO Jason Phillips said former Tulare County Supervisor Kyler Crocker was appointed City Manager of Lindsay last month and one of the first things he did was to request membership. The Executive Committee recommends Lindsay be allowed to join. If approved today, all that would remain will be for the Lindsay City Council to seal the deal and they can be voting members by next month. The board approved.
Maggie Suarez presented the board with a calendar for 2026 meeting dates. The board approved.
Budget
The 2026 general membership budget was presented by CFO Wilson Orvis. He explained how the cash calls are designed to function. There could be four calls, quarterly, but for the
past few years Friant has only had to make three calls annually. Orvis also reported there is nothing new in this budget. In comparison to 2025, the 2026 budget will increase less than three percent. The inclusion of City of Lindsay wasn’t figured into the presentation packet but the costs will drop just a little bit. The board approved.
Orvis also presented the board with the increased cost for soda pop known as COLA. This just in – Cost Of Living Adjustment – that makes more sense. In 2026 there is an adjustment to employees’ increased costs, this being mostly inflation driven. Orvis said the Consumer Price Index is used as the guideline for arriving at a figure. He said a lot of other things but the bottom line is a 3.5 percent increase. Director Josh Pitigliano is chair of the human resources committee and he said it looks like a good deal all around. The board agreed and approved.
Reports, Water Ops
Buck-Macleod gave the water ops update saying we got some last minute rains. While there wasn’t much of an increase on runoff or reservoir infill, the late or early rain (depends) is good for helping hydrate soil in preparation for the upcoming wet season.
There will be an outage at the federal O’Neal pumping plant to swap out a transformer. During this time the water in the Delta Mendota Canal can’t be pumped into San Luis
Reservoir so all the water demands in that division of the Central Valley Project will have to come from the DMC. Buck-Macleod said there are ongoing discussions about how this could recolor water in SLR. There is a drought pool in storage that can be used for either the Exchange Contractors in dry years or westside growers during years when there won’t be a call on Friant. Sometimes this water can be borrowed early in the year but it has to be paid back.
On the Friant side Buck-Macleod said the 100 percent allocation is still in place. The last block of Unreleased Restoration Flows were sold in August, much going to Class II contractors. There are many discussions regarding rescheduling and carryover ongoing. The Bureau will be increasing restoration flows for the salmon program starting today from 30 cfs to 250 cfs. He said there will likely be no Delta water as all of this flow is small enough to recapture on the lower San Joaquin River.
Pump Back
Engineer Katie Duncan said the environmental review of the bump back project has reached a milestone. She said things are ramping up from the planning and permitting phase to the actual construction of the project. Depending on how fast the utilities will respond this project could be finished within a year from construction start. There is a big fatty of a grant from the US Bureau of Reclamation but the timeline shouldn’t be threatened even if the power company lags.
Director Edwin Camp asked about water quality. He is the director representing the Arvin Edison WSD which is at the end of the Friant Kern Canal. Duncan gave him a long explanation but it sounded like they have it handled.
Gov’t Mischief
Johnny Amaral introduced Mike Villines online from Sacramento. The state legislature is out for recess and can do less harm for the moment. The governor is signing bills in batches. The Good. The bill to increase water supplies in California by State Senator Anna Caballero passed and is on the Gov’s desk awaiting signature. It was vetoed last year but who know this year?
Both the Allen and the Papan bills didn’t make it. The bill that would have exempted NGOs from SGMA didn’t make it.
The bad, two horrible bills by Assemblymen Santa Rosa’s Chris Rogers and another one by Ventura’s Steve Bennett are on the desk but there could be some big pressure on Gov Gav to veto both.
On the ugly side is the trailer bill mess on Prop Four funding. There is a coalition of Valley folks trying to get this funding on the Governor’s January budget, which is something Villines thought would actually be a better deal in the long run. The only Valley Assemblypersons to not sign on to the coalition were Jasmine Bains and Joaquin Arambula. Hmm.
Federal Stuff
Amaral said there were more than 48 candidates hanging out in Washington DC were passed through the Senate in one fell swoop. However, the Bureau Commissioner nominee Ted Cooke was pulled. There is still no commissioner and no hope for a new one before sometime next year. This is a very bad thing and a result of the Colorado River negotiations I think.
Amaral said the September 30th deadline to pass a continuing resolution is looming large, as predicted. He also assured the members Friant is working to get things up to speed with the tragic loss of David Dees. He also revealed why the meeting is being held at HQ this month and will continue for the foreseeable future. It’s part cost savings but the audio-visual facilities are better. Fair enough.
O&M
Superintendent Chris Hickernell presented the operations and maintenance report. This included the good news Friant’s safety record is pretty good. Repairing canal banks, filling potholes, attacking unwanted aquatic weeds and securing fencing and removing trash left by the waterfront nomads. He said the golden mussel is a real threat and Friant is testing to be on the lookout for the little nasties coming in from Cross Valley Canal water. They have arrived from the Delta, to as far south as Diamond Lake if I understood correctly. There is some anti bivalve grant funding being made available from the state.
San Joaquin Valley Blueprint
Next, interim Executive Director of the SJV Blueprint, Austin Ewell reported his high school nick name was, coincidently The Golden Mussel. Moving along, the Unified Water Plan is coming along. It is a joint effort between the Blueprint and the California Water Institute at Fresno State University with the help of Stantec Engineering. This will be presented at a large, upcoming meeting.
SLDMWA
Orvis monitors the San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority since a large portion of Friant’s budget goes to SLDM. He said the planning committee has been a very positive process.
CEO
Phillips reported the possible government shutdown could be different than in the past under the Trump administration. There is a scenario where the non-essential employees furloughed may not come back. Phillips said 90-percent of the government is on a fire drill at the moment. The big impact to Friant would be the USBR.
November the 13th is a tentative date for the Sac Dam groundbreaking in Firebaugh. Picture a scene promoting the success of the San Joaquin River Restoration. Phillips said there hasn’t been many water success stories in California but this could be one.
Here’s something shaking things up – the Bureau will not be attending the Winter ACWA meeting in Southern California. At least none from the Sacramento Office. There will possibly be some from the Colorado River offices attending. The Family Farm Alliance in Reno and the Mid Pacific Region, also in Reno should have some Bureau representatives in attendance.
Phillips also spoke about his new digs in Arizona. His kids are doing good. Things shut down for lunch at 12:05pm, go be good to each other and yourselves.
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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 Jason Phillips, COO Johnny Amaral, CFO Wilson Orvis, Water Resources Manager Ian Buck-Macleod, Engineer Katie Duncan, Superintendent Chris Hickernell and Attorney ?.
