By Joshua Dowell
The Glenn Colusa Irrigation District held its monthly board of directors meeting on Thursday, June 18, 2020 in via teleconference. Board President Donald Bransford called the meeting to order at 9:00AM and began the meeting with a public comment session. Formalities followed with authorization of payments out of the general and operations fund and the approval of the last meeting’s minutes.
The maintenance report by staff was the first item on the agenda. Multiple drains were cleared out and several laterals were mowed to keep water moving and the team is in the process of fabricating new rakes for the district’s backhoes. Next up Water Operations 
reported that the south side of the district is receiving as much water as possible that they can get. Currently the district is pumping 2,500 cubic feet per second to continue to meet demands. Also, over 12,000 cubic feet of water is going to be released into the system to maintain balance. Notched weir boards are now okay to be used because of the upgraded allocation of 100% that the district received.
The board considered the next item, titled, Consider Accepting Governmental Accounting Standards District’s Retiree Health Care Liability; Review and Consider Adoption of Revised Retiree Health Insurance Funding Policy; Direct Staff to Contribute Funding During Fiscal Year 2019-20 to the Irrevocable Benefit Trust per Revised Policy. Now that is a mouthful, but to put it in a gist, it was an improved set of benefits for the district’s staff and operations. The board went ahead and postponed that matter for later consideration.
To round out the meeting, coming in just under an hour if you do not include closed session, a couple of reports were given. The treasurer’s report was brief and a listing of the balances of district, some water sales have happened and the current financial standing of the district is similar to last year’s June in light of COVID-19. The final report was on the Glenn Groundwater Authority which recently approved their budget for next fiscal year.
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Josh Dowell brings a combined background of ag technology, water policy and grower
focused service.
GLENN COLUSA IRRIGATION DISTRICT – 344 East Laurel Street, Willows, CA 95988 contact@gcid.net 530/934-8881 www.gcid.net
Board – Donald Bransford-President, Peter Knight-Vice President, John Amaro, Logan 
Dennis & Blake Vann
Staff – Thaddeus Bettner-GM, Cynthia Davis-Personnel & Communications, Zac Dickens-District Engineer & Jered Shipley-Water Ops Sup
DWR GSA # 5-021.52
GCID is the largest irrigation district in the Sacramento Valley. The district boundaries cover approximately 175,000 acres; of which approximately 140,000 farmed. There are 1,076 landowners in the District and an additional 200 tenant water users. Additionally, GCID services 1,200 acres of private habitat land and 21,000 acres of protected federal wildlife refuges. Winter water supplied by GCID to thousands of acres of rice land provides valuable habitat for migrating waterfowl during the winter months. Current water supplies are diverted under the “Settlement Water Contracts” with the Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau). The first Settlement Contracts were established in 1964 to allow the Bureau to operate and divert water for the newly constructed Central Valley Project. The contract was renewed for another 40-year term in 2005. The contract provides GCID with water supply for the months of April through October for 720,000 acre-feet of base supply, and 105,000 acre-feet of Central Valley Project water that is purchased during the months of July and August. During a designated critical year when natural inflow to Shasta Reservoir is less than 3.2 million acre-feet, GCID’s total supply is reduced by 25%, to a total of 618,000 acre-feet. – From the GCID website.
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