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Kings River Water Association April 19, 2022

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The Kings River Water Association held its Tuesday, April 19, 2022 Executive Committee meeting in person at the Fresno County Farm Bureau headquarters in Fresno. While prepping for the day I learned two new words: Dysphemism and oikophobia. The only reason I bring this up is because one of the beauties of covering ag water is how things you never hear of before pop up in common usage. I do spend a bit of time trying to decipher initials and acronyms. Yesterday I had to ask Friant’s Ian Buck-Macleod what CVO stands for. Central Valley Operations if I recall correctly. You’d think I would have heard that before. I’ve heard of COA, the cooperative operating agreement between the US Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources on who gets credit for pumping how much. But I don’t recall hearing CVO before. Yes, Covid did give me some brain fog for a while and I have hit my head pretty hard over the course of time but in general after a while we all learn the jargon needed to conduct communications in the area we delve into on a daily basis.

Somewhere on our website there’s a page dedicated to abbreviations, initials and acronyms. It’s been a while since I looked at my Associated Press Style Guide (AP) but as I recall one is supposed to spell out the word or words fully on first usage before resorting to initials. To tell the truth I much prefer The Elements of Style by e.b. white and William Strunk. White was the author of Charlotte’s Web and Strunk was an English professor at Cornell. The Elements of Style is just fun reading as one might expect from an author who preferred his name spelled in lower case. The AP style has a little too much thought police in its definitions for my taste but it does provide a uniform manner to communicate such as spelling out numbers below 10 and how to properly address royal titles if you ever find yourself writing about such things.

Anyway, my point being when using initials one is supposed to spell it out before tossing it to the winds of jargon. Once an acronym is established you can forego that step. Few readers need to know NASA stands for National Aeronautic and Space Administration. SGMA has made the transition from initialed jargon to acronym. I suspect few of you reading this needs to know SGMA stands for Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. I believe its time to add ASO to the pantheon of acronyms. From now on the Airborne Snow Observatory shall be known as ASO. Just be careful how you say it out loud it or else folks might think you’re calling them a bad name.Technoflo

The Meeting

That was more of an introduction than I intended but one of my favorite Mark Twain stories is how he wrote a very long letter and at the end apologized for its length saying if he’d had more time it would have been shorter.

The meeting was called to order by Chairman Jerry Halford at 10:14am. The meeting began in closed session at 9am and there was nothing reported. The minutes were approved and I notice there is no public comment on the agenda, at least not practically placed.

I believe the masked man giving the water report was Matt Meadows. As one might expect his report wasn’t as popular as it could be under different circumstances. Meadows said the ASO flights from earlier this month have provided data and there is a tentative May 1st flight scheduled. The snowpack is estimated at 350,000 a/f on the Kings River watershed. There is a storm predicted later this week and I think it is going to be a pretty good one for Northern California. However, as the storm moves southward it will likely loose strength. One of the charts showing delivery goes back more than 20-years and the worst supply was 2014-15 with 21 percent. The 2020-21 year was only 23 percent and this year is hard to say if it will be a downward record breaker or not.

Meadows said the US Bureau of Reclamation’s predicted a 90-percent exceedance. In the sometimes backwards world of water 90-percent is not good. It means only 10-percent of the time is there less water.

Outreach & Legal Matters

Randall McFarland gave his report saying there have been media inquiries from television. He’s been working on KRWA’s behalf with the Fresno County Farm Bureau to get the word out about water supplies.

Attorney Joe Huges reported the McMullin Area GSA’s application before the State Board to take flood flows from the Kings River has been denied, if I understood correctly.

In related news legislative consultant Alex Dominguez spoke about the bill pending before the State Legislature that would codify Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order requiring well permits to be approved by the GSAs. He said he spoke with the author who indicated the purpose was to have counties and GSAs work closer together. Most folks agree this isn’t the way to go about it. Senator Melissa Hurtado’s bill to do away with the State Board has been amended to keep the board and include a new committee to review water law in the 21st Century.

Fish & Wild-living

Director Ryan Jacobsen reported there was a successful Kings River clean up last week. Meadows said T Mobile has offered to donate $10 for each of its employees who show up to these events. Good for them. Meadows also reported on the impacts on fish due to lower water levels and increased heat. He also said there will be a clean up this coming Saturday. There are two projects for fish and wildlife that are at the 30 percent design stage. Also, the state game wardens have requested more brochures featuring the fishery on the Kings. Meadows said the Calaveras hatchery won’t be providing stock next year so they’re looking for a new source. Harris Farms

Jacobsen reported on the Kings River Fishery Management Program. He said it started in 1999 with a $100,000 annual contribution split by the KRWA and the Kings River Conservation District. He said the time to pay up has come due already this year. There have been a couple of years where the fund wasn’t paid into. There was a good chunk of change in the fund for a couple of years and nobody wanted to park their money there.

General Manager/Watermaster Steve Haugen said folks are expecting the $50,000 this year. He suggested paying $100,000 next year which will help get things caught up and give the members the ability to plan ahead on their budgets. Meadows outlined where the money is being spent. Director Phil Desatoff said he heard about studies, design and outreach but not habitat improvement. Haugen said getting the projects to the 30 percent design opens up a trash can of California F&W grant money. Jacobsen agreed it is taking longer than expected. Director Mark McKean said the financial documents in the meeting packet show $115,000 is currently in the account. His point was its difficult to ask for more money from the members without showing any progress. Meadows said they are looking for long term investments as there is a lot of gravel to move and it is a continuous process as the river moves the stream bed. Haugen added getting the permits from F&W requires a project on the books. Halford asked why F&W hasn’t paid its share and Haugen said the original framework didn’t require a timeline for F&W to cough up. McFarland recalls F&W was reluctant to claim it could commit a future legislature to fund things. Haugen said Kings River gets very few complaints from the fishing community. The Kings is stocking on the same levels as in the 1970s. The board agreed to get caught up with its payments as long as it could budget for the increased expense. The KRCD has been paying all along and doesn’t need to get caught up.

Financials

Next Haugen was posed to give a report and the bills got paid quicker than you could blink. The treasurer’s report was quick also and also approved. That was pretty much it and the meeting adjourned at 11:16am.

Well, you’ve read this far and I appreciate you doing so. In case you were wondering dysphemism is the opposite of euphemism. Fallowed land could be the dysphemism of repurposed land and oikophobia means hatred and derision of one’s home or country. Unfortunately there is a lot of calling something – something else, it’s also known as political correctness and a good dose of dysphemism might hit the spot although there is an element of our society who will want to cancel you for it. Most of the cancellers suffer from oikophobia.

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KINGS RIVER WATER ASSOCIATION – 4886 E. Jensen Avenue, Fresno, CA 93725 559/237-5567 www.kingsriverwater.org

Water Master – Steve Haugen, Attorney – Joe Hughes

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