The Kings River Water Association held its Tuesday, January 18, 2022 executive committee meeting by Ring Central, another non-Zoom product. The meeting began at 9:00am with six closed session items. The screen came alive at 10:04am and there were 45 online participants. That is a fairly large gathering but the Kings River holds an important place in the San Joaquin Valley’s irrigated agriculture community.
Community, that’s become a buzz word. I don’t know why exactly but there is something about buzz words that rub me wrong. Robust, silo, sustainable and now community have made the list of words that indicate you can signal your membership in the good ol’ trans club, I mean boy’s club of using inside terminology. But really, they’re just words. I hear robust and I think Rubenesque and rotund. I hear silo and I think about storing grain. I hear sustainable and I think about how long you can hold your breath because nothing lasts forever. Now thanks to the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Boards I think of community as a group that excludes. Not too long ago the Regional Boards got together to talk about Critical Race Theory. I hope I don’t have to explain that one again beyond saying it is the opposite of equal.
During a workshop on CRT broadcast on Youtube (sorry I can’t find the link, if you have it please pass it on) a Regional Board member from I believe the Los Angeles area made a statement much like this – It’s time for the “Regulatory Community” to begin correcting the racial inequity from systemic racism. The phrase “regulatory community” was used and the rest of the statement’s meaning if not wording was as the above. We were hearing about
the environmental justice community, the tribal community, the social justice community throughout this meeting and some appointee decides there needs to be a regulatory community enforcing its own ideas. Only in California, at least I hope so.
The Meeting
At 10:07am or so the open session portion of the meeting began with a greeting by Chairman Jerry Halford. Mark Meadows showed the committee the water conditions. He said the southern Sierra is at 130 percent of average for the water year at this time but only at 50 percent of the average based on April readings. He said it looks like the rest of January will be dry. If I understood there is currently one and quarter million acre feet of snowpack in the Kings River Watershed. There is still plenty of storage at Pine Flat Reservoir before flood control operations need to be invoked.
Administration
Executive Director Steve Haugen told the board the annual meeting in March is when seats rotate with many of the Kings County and North Fork members taking on new district holders. Also the chairman slot will shift from an upper river to a lower river position.
Haugen said the last time a KRWA handbook was printed was 2009 and that document is being updated. He said they’ve been working with the Kings River Conservation District and editing by the legendary Randy McFarland. He said each unit needs to carefully read through the draft to verify the information is accurate. He said in addition to print there are plans to make this available in digital form, more than just a PDF.
Outreach
McFarland reported during December before the rains the State Board was talking about tinkering with water rights but the Kings River wasn’t a high priority and the State Board didn’t do anything after all.
McFarland said the Fresno Farm Bureau Ag Leadership program is going to take a tour of the Kings River operations. He sees this as an excellent opportunity to tell the good story. He said he’s started the edit of the handbook and he said the timetable presented for this project is on track. He said there will be more historical and geographical information. He said the target audience is the layman and the media. It can be a real help as a reference tool and he’s happy to see it updated and improved.
Committee Reports
After attorney Joe Hughes said he didn’t have anything to report in open session Haugen gave the committee an update on legislative matters. He said KRWA lobbyist Jack Gualco said there will be a lot of moving parts to the 2022 election with many office holders terming out, running for other seats and retiring. There is a bill regarding CEQA AB 1001
that is being opposed by many in the Valley. It would require any agency opting for a neg dec to mitigate air and water quality at any Disadvantaged Communities as opposed to a regional level and follow the principles of environmental justice. There’s a buzz word pair, enviro-justice, it’s wrong and the meaning has been perverted. Anyway, Alex Dominguez said this bill is changing the mitigation from regional to site specific and the definition of enviro justice is so vague as to open many doors of unintended consequences, or maybe not unintended.
Haugen also talked about a state senate bill SB 463 addressing private pipelines and it may have support from the Farm Bureau and is moving quickly. He also said the bill needs to be looked at closer and the KRWA legislation committee is looking at it for unintended consequences. Dominguez said there is language that isn’t clear about the impact on mutual and ditch companies as they are private as opposed to public. Ryan Jacobsen is the Chair of Fresno ID and chief of the Fresno Farm Bureau. He said the Farm Bureau is neutral at this time and looking into the matter. In the meantime KRWA voted to oppose AB 1001.
KRCD General Manager David Merritt said he wanted to mention SB 840 and other budget bills involving land repurposing has language that includes prohibiting recharge amounts on the repurposed land being used for irrigation. Who comes up with this insanity? The somewhat saner California Water Commission will be having a meeting tomorrow that will discuss water trading. Folks are going to be keeping an eye on that.
Haugen reported Senator Diane Feinstein’s office is going to participate in an Airborne Snow Observatory workshop to show the benefits of further funding this excellent established program. That’s good news.
Water Quality
KRDC’s Charlotte Gallock reported the new outreach committee will be discussing the cost of compliance to State Board will be held. The object is to move general funds to help pay for public benefits. There will also be talk about streamlining data management with the state. The government is all over the place in its reporting requirements and it would be good to stop sending the same information to six different agencies.
Gallock said the Kings Subbasin nitrate testing and bottled water program is going strong. She expects the nitrate map will be different as levels are rising.
Jacobsen reported on the KRWA Fish & Wildlife committee saying fish stocking on the Kings River has started with both KRWA and Cal F&W efforts chipping in. There is a voluntary clean up along the river and while it is unfortunate the amount of trash it is good to see the volunteers. Someone, not going to say who, asked if the stocked fish are big enough to catch. There’s a term I’ve just heard, sub-catch-able. Too small to keep and those are rainbow trout planted by the state.
Haugen said they want more fish in the catch and release zone. Jacobsen said the releases are at Avocado Lake on the Kings River and near Woodward Park on the San Joaquin River.
Financial Reports
Right off the bat they committee moved unanimously to pay the bills. Haugen gave the treasurer’s report and it was also approved. That was it for the meeting. The board went back into closed session at 11:09am and to use another buzz word phrase you can stick a fork in it.
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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, Support Staff – Bailey DeGraw
