By Joel Hastings
The Madera Irrigation District held its regular monthly board of directors meeting at the district offices in Madera on April 16, 2024. As usual, the closed session began at 1 p.m. to consider items of anticipated and existing litigation and the annual performance evaluation of General Manager Tom Greci. President Jim Erickson called the open session to order at 2 p.m. and led the Pledge. Counsel John Kinsey reported from the closed session saying that the agreement with Friant for all the contractors had been approved.
In Memory
With no members of the public attending and no one in the Zoom, Director Carl Janzen asked for the floor to open the meeting. He said he wanted to recognize the passing of longtime water leader Kole Upton, a 30-year director of the Chowchilla Water District and the current president. Janzen said he had been president of the Friant Water Authority for some years during which time the San Joaquin River restoration project had been negotiated. Janzen said that was probably the best outcome we could achieve. He also said Upton had served in various roles with ACWA and was always available to advise fellow water leaders and the media. He said he wanted to remember Upton for what he did.
Madera ID GSA
At 2:05 p.m. the board convened as the GSA board and opened the previously announced public hearing on the adoption of the Revised Joint Groundwater Sustainability Plan for the Madera Subbasin. MID joined with the City of Madera, the Madera County GSA (covering the “white areas”) and the smaller Madera Water District to develop one GSP. Three other GSAs within the subbasin had developed and separated GSPs. These four separate GSPs are unified through the Madera Subbasin Coordination Agreement. Despite the fact that Madera ID GSA had indicated its concerns that other GSAs in the subbasin were not taking sufficient action to reduce groundwater pumping with resulting negative consequences, DWR had approved the Revised Joint GSP on December 21, 2023.
In light of that development and in spite of continuing concerns about lack of action by other GSAs, the Madera ID GSA board adopted a resolution to approve the Revised Joint GSP. There was no public comment and the roll call vote showed unanimous approval.
Continuing the GSA meeting agenda, Assistant General Manager Dina Nolan reported that work is ongoing to develop the five-year update on the Subbasin GSP due next January. She said that working with consultants, property owners with domestic wells are being
sought to provide water quality monitoring as required. Director Janzen offered his well for this purpose.
She said that with board approval, which was forthcoming, RFPs for land acquisition for recharge were being offered to property owners in the District. Proposals are due May 24 at 4 p.m. and the board will have the opportunity to make selections, or not, at their June 18 regular board meeting. Approved transactions could go immediately to escrow for cash at closing. Board members expressed enthusiasm for these new possibilities to increase recharge capabilities. Location, soil quality, parcel size and of course price will be considered. In a news release distributed by MID, interested property owners are invited to obtain the Proposal Form and Purchase and Sale Agreement, by calling the office at 559-673-3514 ext. 215 or email asandoval@madera-id.org. Detail is also available on the district website.
GM Greci thanked the board for their commitment to SGMA. He said the Districts basins had been mostly dried out and are ready to receive water he expected soon from Millerton Lake. Director Dave Loquaci expressed the hope there if there was another wet year, the District could double the quantity of water recharged, as well as taking acreage out of crop production, resulting in permanent water savings.
Nolan continued, presenting a document showing water year results in the GSA as required by the state under SGMA. She presented a spread sheet showing that 21 recharge projects in the District had been completed by MID, even though they aren’t all due for completion until 2040. She said some projects such as recharge basins in the city of Madera were not
even included in the GSP but were being done. She said MID is not only doing this work, but making sure that it is properly documented and reported. The detail and spread sheet were presented to the directors who expressed the hope that their growers and the public could see what is being accomplished, which is funded by them, after all. The spread sheet can be seen in the report in Table 7.1 and Table 7.2 on pages 49-51. The report can be found here: https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/gspar/preview/317
The MID Meeting
At 2:25 p.m. the group reconvened as the MID board approving the consent agenda which included meeting minutes for February, March and April, the warrant of bill payments through March 29 totaling $1,780,337.98, the financial and budget reports for January and February. A resolution for the sale of surplus equipment – a large format printer and three outdated laptops – was also on the consent list.
O&M Report
Charles Contreras, operations and maintenance manager, gave his always detailed report that was included in the meeting agenda in 12 pages with text and photos. It had been a remarkably busy month with some big repair projects along a high traffic street in the city and work on the Madera Canal. Also accomplished were required employee training
sessions and quick reaction to problems when water started flowing . The semi-annual groundwater measurements from monitoring wells were also done in March, showing an average depth of 207 feet, a favorable slight decrease in average depth for the second consecutive year. Both Greci and Nolan were particularly complimentary of all that had been accomplished in the department.
GM Report
In his GM report, Greci said that the Madera Canal work had required some overtime, and the projects were pushed to get ready for incoming water. He said the Bureau is still saying 95 percent Class 1 but that he still expects to hear soon it will be a 100 percent allocation, Snow melt will increase with warm weather and the District is in full recharge mode to fill all basins.
He said the Friant Water Authority annual meeting will be held in Madera on May 16 at the San Joaquin Winery. He said the staff had enjoyed tours of some District facilities to students from the Sherman Thomas STEM program. Exposing the students to the variety of employment opportunities in the district was eye opening for the kids and fun for the staff. An additional benefit was that many work areas had been straightened up.
Next up just after the scheduled 2:45 p.m. appointment was the report from Kip Hudson of HHC, Inc., a CPA firm in Fresno. In short, the books are in good order and there are no recommendations for management oversight. He did note that an error made many years ago in an asset calculation had been spotted with a resulting adjustment in the 2022 report. He said the balance sheet showed satisfactory results for 2023 with an increase in cash of $900,000, an increase in assets of $1.3 million and a decrease in liabilities because of debt retirement. Total operating income for 2023 amounted to $26.4 million, non-operating revenues were $5.9 million and the change in net position for the year was $5.7 million. The board accepted this report without much discussion.
Next the board set dates for the board of equalization meeting. The first session will be held June 18 at the regular monthly meeting and the final opportunity for public appeal and for adopting the tax roll will be June 21. Board Secretary Andrea Kwock Sandoval
confirmed the required notifications and publicity would be forthcoming. The board also formally moved to request the county board of elections to conduct the election for two divisions in the district – Division 4, the seat held by Jim Erickson and Division 5, the seat held by Carl Janzen.
Directors had only brief comments and President Erickson concluded asking if someone could represent the district at the Friant meeting on June 27, since he had an out of town commitment. He assured the group the volunteer would not need to chair the meeting, his current responsibility.
The board went back into closed session at 3:06 p.m.
Earlier Special Board Meeting Sets 2024 Dates, Rates
The district held a special board meeting to set the starting date and pricing for the 2024 water year. The meeting began at 2:00 p.m. on April 4 and lasted about 20 minutes. The board approved April 8 as the starting date for water deliveries and set a rate of $110 / AF for Original District Lands.
The pricing policy for 2024 was approved setting a rate of $300 / AF for Subordinate Lands. Operational management water will also be priced at $110. The District will convey water to lands within the District at a rate of $70 / AF plus 15 percent losses. Conveyance to lands outside the District will be at a rate of $180 / AF plus 15 percent. Flat rate water
charges for smaller parcels less than six acres will range from $440 to $1,452 based on the specific number of acres. All of these rates may be reviewed and adjusted as conditions change.
In a press release issued at once after the meeting, President Jim Erickson said, “After a historic 2023 season, the longest on record for MID, we are excited that the 2024 season is already kicking off.”
The release explains that growers must complete a Crop Water Application and order water prior to taking deliveries, adding that the availability and timing will be location dependent. Applications will be accepted now by email or in person at the District offices. Water can be ordered over the phone to the office as well.
The release also reminds growers that they can check their water usage and account balances online via WaterUI.
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Madera Irrigation District – 12152 Road 28 ¼ Madera, CA 93637 559/673-3514
Staff: General Manager -Thomas Greci, Assistant GM – Dina Nolan
Board: Jim Erickson, Chair; Tim DaSilva, Brian Davis, Carl Janzen and Dave Loquaci
HISTORY: From www.madera-id.org The Madera Irrigation District (MID or District) encompasses an area of approximately 139,665 acres. MID operates a primarily gravity irrigation distribution system with approximately 300 miles of open flow canal systems as well as 150 miles of large diameter pipelines.
The District has a Central Valley Project (CVP) repayment contract with United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) providing up to 85,000 acre feet (AF) of Class 1 and 186,000 AF of Class 2 water per year from the Friant Division (Millerton Lake). The CVP water is released from Millerton Lake through the Friant Dam, and then conveyed through the Madera Canal for delivery into the District’s service area. The District also entered into a CVP repayment contract with the USBR for the yield from the Hidden Unit (Hensley Lake). Under the Hidden Unit contract, the average annual supply available to the District is approximately 24,000 AF per year.
DWR SGMA # 5-022.06
