MADERA IRRIGATION DISTRICT BOARD RECOGNIZES ERICKSON Outgoing President Jim Erickson was recognized for his service at the District board meeting held January 21, 2025. Shown here from left are: newly elected Director Brandon Bishel, Tim DaSilva, Board Secretary Andrea Sandoval, Vice President Brian Davis, Jim Erickson, Carl Janzen, Assistant General Manager Dina Nolan and President Dave Loquaci. -photo by Joel Hastings, WaterWrights
By Joel Hastings
The Madera Irrigation District held its regular board meeting on January 21, 2025 at the District offices on the south side of Madera. A closed session was held at 1 p.m. covering items of anticipated and current litigation and a real estate negotiation, according to the agenda. The open meeting was called to order on schedule at 2:00 p.m. by temporary chair Carl Janzen, opening with the Pledge, no conflicts of interest and nothing to report from the closed session. Public comment was invited but there was none in person or online. It was announced that General Manager Tom Greci had been called away unexpectedly by a family emergency.
The GSA Meeting
The first item of business was a tribute to outgoing president Jim Erickson. He had served ten years as director and most recently as board president, including a term as chairman of the Friant Water Authority. It was a surprise to many that he was not reelected as director last fall, even though he had support from much of the grower community. Assistant General Manager Dina Nolan presented a plaque thanking Erickson for his service as director and president. Erickson was succeeded as a director by Brandon Bishel who was participating in this, his first meeting.
The board then convened as the board of the Madera ID GSA to conclude the public hearing on the adoption of the Amended Joint Groundwater Sustainability Plan for the Madera Subbasin. Three resolutions were on the agenda. The first was to adopt the amended plan, the second was to approve the second amendment of the ongoing coordination agreement among the GSAs in the subbasin and the third was to approve a memorandum of understanding to establish an interconnected surface water working group.
To address all these related topics, the board had invited John Davids of Davids Engineering who has worked with four of the seven GSAs in the Madera Subbasin throughout this process. The Madera ID originally worked with Madera City, Madera County and the small Madera Water District to develop one GSP. Davids greeted the board and expressed his hope that all would be well in the Greci family. He presented a 23-slide program which included background information and then detail for board consideration of the three resolutions. He was joined by Bernadette Boyle, a project hydrologist for Luhdorff & Scalmanini, another firm providing technical expertise.
He began by pointing out four important dates in the SGMA process. In January 2020, GSPs for the Madera Subbasin were submitted to DWR. Then in September 2022, DWR found the GSPs incomplete. In March 2023, revised GSPs were submitted and in December that year, DWR approved the GSPs. However, in its approval letter it detailed a series of corrective actions to insure that the GSPs result in sustainability by2040. The plan amendment as required, and the first initial periodic evaluation are due January 31, 2025.
Davids continued with his detailed presentation identifying the corrective actions and specifying how they were to be met. The first one called for all seven GSAs to adopt and approve a single GSP for the subbasin. The GSAs are currently signing on, just as Madera ID was to do in this meeting. The other corrective actions had to do with continued coordination and two referenced groundwater levels and subsidence. Another required agreement on a theoretical model of groundwater level measurements and a final one involved water quality measurements.
The amended plan had been posted for 45 days for public review with 15 public comments received. Seven involved groundwater quality, six concerned domestic well mitigation and one each referenced groundwater depletion and one interconnected water ways. Responses to each were developed included in an appendix to the plan amendment.
Davids then explained the periodic evaluation is required every five years or whenever a plan is amended. This one covers groundwater levels and storage, water quality, land subsidence and interconnected waterways. It too will be ready for submission by the end of the month as required.
After Ms. Boyle provided more technical detail about work on the water budgets through 2040, a chart was shown revealing that among the seven subbasin GSAs, an additional 120,000 A/F must be reduced to effect balance… the subbasin is about half way to meeting this goal. Davids pointed out that MID has reached 78 percent of its goal in the GSP achieving over 38,000 AF of reduction with a 2040 target of 49,000 AF.
A final item of discussion was the proposed MOU to establish a working group among the Madera Subbasin GSAs, two Kings Subbasin GSAs, Friant Water Association and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regarding interconnected surface water, all as impacted by the San Joaquin River flows.
At this point, the board acted with three roll call votes to unanimously approve the amended joint GSP, the second amendment to the coordination agreement among the GSAs and the MOU to establish the working group on interconnected waterways.
The ID Meeting
Moving back to the MID board agenda, the group unanimously elected Dave Loquaci president and Brian Davis vice-president. Janzen relinquished the gavel and Loquaci chaired the remainder of the meeting.
The consent agenda was approved including minutes of the December 2, 2024 special meeting and the warrant list of bill payments totaling $2,427,090.52. Director Davis had inquired about an expense item of $90,000 for the district election. The reply was that was the cost invoiced by the county. The financial report showed total cash on hand in all funds amounting to $57,675,001.99
Next was a presentation from Adrienne Beatty, chief executive officer of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) Joint Powers Insurance Agency (JPIA). In a detailed presentation with slides and handouts, she explained how 403 water agencies – ACWA members – have created a non-profit entity to provide insurance for property, liability, workers compensation and employee benefits. Director Janzen, a member of the JPIA board, advocated for this presentation since MID participates in several of these programs including property, liability, cyber insurance and employee benefits. Because water districts are relatively low risk and with several components of self-insurance, members enjoy very stable and relatively low rates.
One employee program managed directly by the District is the employee savings programs – 401a, 457 and 401k. Employees contribute for their retirement on a tax deferred basis with a match from the District and additional contributions based on company performance as determined by the board. The funds are managed by the Cornerstone Advisory Group in Fresno. Bryan Griffith presented a brief overview, explaining how each employee has online access to his / her account to allow a selection of funds. He also reviewed how individual funds are selected and monitored and how employees are assisted with their financial planning. His written submission included fund balances, contributions, withdrawals and earnings. The board passed resolutions putting the new officers and directors on the list of official trustees for the three funds.
Continuing with new business, new signatories were also identified for the District’s various bank accounts. The board approved a quitclaim deed releasing title for a tiny corner of land, less than an acre, which had no use for the District but was requested by a neighboring property owner to document ownership.
The board then considered membership over a number of ad hoc committees to a dozen organizations, including ACWA Region 6, Friant Power Authority, Friant Water Authority and several other less active groups. Of the board’s three standing committees, Bishel was named to the personnel committee and Loquaci joins finance along with Tim DaSilva, with Davis as an alternate member. Loquaci and Davis remain on the groundwater management committee.
Controller Jennifer Furstenburg presented the required listing of staff and directors who had received more than $100 from the District in 2024. There was nothing of note, with most all of the amounts for reimbursement of travel and meeting attendance.
Even though the meeting by now was into its third hour, Charles Contreras’ operations and maintenance report was, as always, of real interest. His documentation of work done with photos around the district is appreciated. During discussion he said he believed necessary repair and maintenance work on ditches, canals and pipelines for the off season was pretty much on schedule.
Providing the management report, Assistant GM Nolan pointed out the board folder contained the District’s letter of comment about the proposed Bonita Water District. The response from Manager Brad Samuelson acknowledged that water that might be provided by MID was in all circumstances at MID’s complete discretion. She said she had no comment about water supplies and there had been no change in the Bureau’s allocation. Everyone chimed in to speculate about weather, and she concluded by pointing out the MID would have several attendees at the upcoming Mid-Pacific Conference hosted by the Bureau.
As usual, the final agenda item is director reports. DaSilva restated his compliments about how the District facilities are being maintained as he observes traveling around.
Director Davis said that discussions at ACWA meetings about land repurposing had become more frequent but there seems to be no clarity on where funding may come from. He said in spite of interest in solar, the grid lacks the ability to store large amounts of new solar so that option for land owners doesn’t appear to be a reality. He also described new studies about fish survival in Delta tributaries being funded by several irrigation districts. The bottom line, non-native bass wreak havoc on efforts to restock native salmon, consuming eggs, fingerlings and ever larger fish long before they can reach the Delta. He said basically these new studies show that hatcheries are feeding the bass.
Director Janzen referenced his attendance at the regional ACWA and JPIA meetings and said he had attended the San Joaquin Conservancy meeting.
Director Loquaci described his experience with water measurements from the county’s allocation system on 70 acres of white area he farms with grapes. Because the unused portion of his allocation was carried over from the previous year, he said that he seemed to have even more water available next year – marveling at how more water could be created in a white area where a reduction in water usage is what’s really required.
At 4:45 p.m., the board returned to close session to do the performance review
of Charles Contreras, operations & maintenance manager. While there was no report from this closed session, I’d bet a lot that Mr. Contreras is still blushing from the high praise he received, based on his detailed reports and the always positive comments from directors and his bosses at every meeting.
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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 Daivs, Vice President; Brandon Bishel, Tim DaSilva and Carl Janzen
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