By Joel Hastings
The Madera Irrigation District held its regular meeting on June 16 at the district offices, called to order at 1:30 p.m. by President Dave Loquaci who led the Pledge. There was no reportable action from the closed session held earlier, no changes to the agenda and no public comment in person or online. Director Brian Davis was absent and a guest was Johnny Amaral, CEO of the Friant Water Authority who offered comments later in the meeting.
Director Carl Janzen spoke for a moment to acknowledge the passing of Fergus Morrissey, water industry leader from the Orange Cove Irrigation District. As manager of a smaller district, he had been very involved with both Friant Water Authority and the Power Authority. MID GM Tom Greci said that Morrissey had been a mentor to him earlier in his career at Friant. Amaral added that Morrissey had made a great contribution to the region through his leadership in reaching agreement about how the repair costs for subsidence in the Friant-Kern Canal should be shared among the contractors.
Board of Equalization Meeting
Convening as the board of equalization with a public hearing, the group heard Controller Jennifer Furstenburg say the hearing would continue until Friday, June 19 when the board would adopt the assessment values for lands in the district including the city of Madera. She said the estimated revenue from the assessment amounts to about $2.7 million which is applied to district administration, water transmission and supply costs. Board members expressed satisfaction that due the early payoff of a 218 bond, the cost per acre for irrigated farmland was being reduced from $51 per acre to $18 per acre. Greci said that with the closing on the sale of the Madera Ranch acreage, a second note would be paid off leaving the district with no debt. The board packet included several exhibits detailing the categories and assessments across the district.
SGMA
With no further discussion, the board convened as the MID GSA board to hear an update from Assistant GM Dina Nolan. She said repairs to district pipelines are continuing using funds from the million-dollar grant from NRCS. Two Cal Poly students are interning in the engineering department. Two qualifying applications in the domestic well mitigation program are being processed.
Regular Meeting
Reconvening as the MID board, the group approved the consent agenda which included minutes from five regular and special board meetings, monthly financial reports and a resolution declaring as surplus a number of trucks and other equipment so they can be sold. Included also was the warrant list of payments totaling $3,129,771.51. GM Greci thanked Carmina Espinoza who drafted the meeting minutes as presented. Director Janzen moved approval with a notation to be added that attorney John Kinsey was excused when the legal fees for his firm, Wanger Jones Helsley, were being discussed and approved. The roll call vote showed unanimous approval.
Charles Contreras, O & M manager, delivered his usual complete and detailed operations report, referring to the six pages in the board packet with both narrative and photos. The board continues to be pleased with the amount of work done by him and his crew to maintain and upgrade district transmission facilities. He reported continued installation of the new digital mapping system, improved Wi-Fi for the yard which, among many other things, allows digital sensors to alert selected cell phones in the event of overflows in certain canals. These are working well and more sensors will likely be installed.
His final item was his report of the semi-annual groundwater measurements taken in the spring and fall. As President Loquaci said, this was the only part of Contreras’ report that no one was pleased with since the distance to groundwater as shown by the monitoring wells across the district continues to drop. The average figure this fall is 228.65 feet, down from 221.83 feet a year ago. The consensus here is that in spite of the recharge work being done, water is being drawn out from under the district as surrounding lands continue to see high levels of pumping.
GM Report
In his general manager’s report, Tom Greci said that the repairs to the power generation equipment at MCWPA, Madera Chowchilla Water & Power Authority, have been completed. When the new generator was first started, some vibration was noted but as the equipment continued to run, it seemed to adjust itself and operations smoothed out. With flows high in the Madera Canal, the system is running at full capacity.
He said an additional 6000 acre/feet of water have been secured at a cost of $168 / AF so it may be possible to extend the season into August. He said water distributions are at full capacity, except for the drop off on weekends which does cause some issues. He said work has begun with the architectural firm planning for the future of district facilities. He said the grazing lease on the Lake Madera lands has been extended for another five years. He concluded his report at 2:30 p.m. so that a call with the district’s auditor could begin.
On Zoom, Kip Hudson of the Hudson & Company accounting firm in Fresno presented the audit for of the district’s 2025 financials as well as for the retirement plan. He said his firm had found “no material weaknesses” in the record keeping and had issued a clean report. He briefly reviewed the balance sheet, income statement and cash flows for the year saying the district is in a sound financial position with $107 million total cash on hand. There were no significant questions from the board and the report was unanimously approved, with thanks to both the Hudson firm and Controller Furstenburg and her staff.
Friant Visit
Johnny Amaral, CEO of the Friant Water Authority, source of most the Class 1 water for MID, was welcomed and invited to comment. He said that some $200 million has been received from the federal government for the repairs increasing the capacity of the Friant – Kern Canal. He said Congress members Fong and Valadao have been particularly persistent in efforts to obtain funds. He said financial officer Wilson Orvis had negotiated a lump sum payment in advance from the Bureau which allows work to be contracted and moved along more quickly and smoothly. He said similarly, San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority also received a lump sum of $235 million. Added to $33-35 million from the state, Friant will not be required to help fund the expansion of four SLDMWA “tasks” including improvements to the canal liners and bridge repair required by subsidence.
He said he does not know what the longer-term plan is to reduce subsidence. The question of responsibility is a difficult one but it does have to be taken care of. He complimented his staff for managing to maintain water deliveries this year, holding allocations at 100 percent. He said the Trump Administration’s executive orders to maximize supplies to growers has been helpful and it’s hard to imagine a future administration in either party maintaining such a laser focus.
As his last point, he said that we have heard for a decade about the voluntary agreements which now are referred to as the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program. With both the federal and state governments having a role, it’s an open question if a negotiated agreement can be obtained. He is keeping his board up to date on the details, through many meetings in Sacramento. He predicted it will be a big topic of discussion in the next couple of months before a final plan is submitted to the State Water Board.
He stopped for questions about 3:00 p.m. noting there is a downward trend on supply for the Central Valley. He said both the president and the governor are saying the same thing… needed are better management, better data and better reliability for California water.
President Loquaci offered his thanks for “fighting the fight” [for Valley water]. Director Janzen asked if there is a sediment problem in the Delta waterways affecting both flow and temperature. He said the past practice of the user pays doesn’t reflect either the cost or the benefit to a broader public.
Amaral replied that “thankfully” there is some effort to look at “sediment removal.” He said that California Policy Center staff member Edward Ring had made a presentation to the Friant board. Janzen concluded saying he had heard an informative presentation on cyber security by Friant staffer Wilson and Amaral suggested he would be a good guest at your [MID] meeting. With no further questions, Amaral was thanked once again for attending.
Individual board member comments are the last agenda item. Director Brandon Bishel said he found the ACWA meetings interesting and he had enjoyed attending the Friant annual meeting in Bakersfield. Director Tim DaSilva said he wanted to give a big thank you to the great work O&M Manager Contreras is doing all around the district. Janzen said big news at the ACWA meeting was the appointment of a new executive director, Karla Nemeth. Her appointment is effective September 1, and she previously served as director of the state Department of Water Resources. Janzen said he had been reelected chair of the Friant Power Authority along with the other officers. He said the budget projects $9 million in revenues and $3 million in expenses for the power unit. President Loquaci had no further comment and recessed the meeting at 3:20 p.m. with a closed session to follow.
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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: Dave Loquaci, president; Brian Davis, vice-president, Brandon Bishel, Tim DaSilva and Carl Janzen
HISTORY: From www.madera-id.org The Madera Irrigation District (MID or District), founded in 1920, 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
