By Don A. Wright
The San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority held its board of directors meeting on Thursday, August 8, 2024 at its Los Banos headquarters and on Zoom. Most of the time Zoom just works better than the other online meeting computer programs, also known as aps. Yesterday was a busy day. Congressman Jim Costa hosted a water conference at Fresno State University’s Center for Irrigation Technology. Then right after that was the
California Water Alliance’s luncheon at Harris Construction’s beautiful facilities just south of the airport in Fresno. Congressman John Duarte spoke there. There was a good deal of talk and planning and a beef kabob lunch that melted in one’s mouth. For a run down of some what was discussed go here. This will take you to an article by Daniel Gligich of the San Joaquin Valley Sun. You get some good reporting out of that publication.
The Meeting
Chairman Cannon Michael called the meeting to order at the scheduled 9:30am start and we all saluted the flag. After self-introductions it was revealed for a director to participate remotely they have to have a visual as well as audio presence. How about that?
Our good friend John Varela from Santa Clara Valley Water District was able to project his sound, image and opinions from somewhere not in the room. But San Benito County Water Agency’s Jeff Cattaneo was hampered by lack of bandwidth and couldn’t get his video up – so he had to participate without a vote. Boogers. There was no public comment and the consent calendar was approved.
Action Items
COO Pablo Arroyave reported the Finance & Administrative Committee recommended the board approve an adjustment to the 2024 operations, maintenance and repair rates and the board agreed.
Next Arroyave asked Jaime McNeil to explain why SANDIS Engineering should be hired for amount of $2.14 million to provide professional services to map subsidence along the San Luis Delta Mendota Canal. Board said go for it.
There was also a “ratification of execution of task order” with EKI Environment & Water Inc for technical support services. There are many Groundwater Sustainability Agencies within the Delta Mendota Subbasin. The Groundwater Sustainability Plan didn’t make the cut from the State Water Resources Control Board and the subbasin is facing a possible probation ruling from the State Board. J. Scott Petersen said for only $131,000 EKI will help rewrite the GSP. The view is this rewrite could put the subbasin over the goal line. We all sincerely hope so and evidently the board did too, as they approved it.
Petersen told the board there is good reason to support two pieces of federal legislation: HR 5770 and HR 8308. The first provides funds to monitor water on a big scale and the second provides funding to get shed of the invasive nutria. These little critters are also known as swamp rats but don’t let that fool you. They are edible and were imported to California in the 19th century to develop a fur trade. There are a lot of them in Louisiana and you can find them on the menu at upscale New Orleans restaurants. While they are good eating because they are very clean animals, they also burrow into canal banks and levees causing big damage. The board approved the recommendations.
Gov’t Mischief
Petersen reported on legislation and regulatory schemes. He said the comment period for the US Bureau of Reclamation’s Long Term Operations plan for the Delta closes September 9th. The NOAA draft biological opinion on the LTO of the Delta is also up for comment.
Petersen said to expect a continuing resolution to punt the federal spending past the November elections. If I understood the expenditures will get more traction during the lame duck session. In general, there should be a Senate Natural Resources hearing next month and most likely one in the House before the end of the year to deal with federal water legislation. The Farm Bill negotiations have stalled out completely. The House and the Senate are exchanging barbs in the press. Not a good negotiating strategy.
Next Petersen spoke on the mess in Sacotomatoes. They’re back at work but some good bills from Senator Anna Caballero and Assemblywoman Esmerelda Soria dealing with recharge are moving along. There are a couple of species, long fin smelt and the white
sturgeon, that may be listed as endangered and that will have some impacts on the State Water Project’s ability to deliver water. Maybe the federal Central Valley Project as well.
Kristen Olsen reported the end of session at the capital is rushed with 15-20 or more elected officials going to the Democratic Convention next month. The end of session water bill surprise is not happening this year. She said the business must be finished by midnight August 31st. The “Climate Bond” will appear as Proposition Four on the ballot is polling under 60 percent. That’s making some folks anxious. Not so much support for this bond as there isn’t a good deal of water benefits in it.
Executive Director Report
Federico Barajas said how much he appreciated the attendance to the LTO meeting put on by the USBR. From 3-5pm today there will be a virtual public meeting on this matter. There will be a meeting next week in Redding and one in Sacramento later this month. He said be sure to understand the direction this is taking. SLDM will be commenting and he urged everyone to weigh in.
Barajas said there is a new planning committee relating to the Friant MOU being implemented. He said the new committee will be meeting on a similar schedule to the established committees. Friant is also forming a committee. Committees sometimes get a bad rap. I know I’ve given them bad raps. That’s not just because I don’t give out good raps but there is a place for taking a smaller group of board members and letting them develop some more in depth knowledge and expertise on a subject to inform the great board.
The true up on the energy costs have been different this year. SLDM staff and Wilson Orvis of Friant did some lifting on increasing the focus on getting the money back.
Barajas said the O’Neil Pumping Plant and the DMC subsidence projects have had their permits submitted.
Director Bill Diedrich took a moment to praise SLDM staff for their work at the LTO hearing. He said the more he heard at last night’s meeting the more his heart rate rose. He said there is an overwhelming need to educate the stakeholders and reach out to the elected officials about the dangers rushing towards us. Diedrich also said it is a duty for the directors and stakeholders to support Barajas and the SLDM staff’s efforts to deal with this threat. Michael agreed calling the proposals “terrifying”. Diedrich said this isn’t an east or west problem. It will wreck the entire valley.
COO Report
Arroyave said the units pumping at Jones are now at five since 9am this morning. Conveyance is back due to the repairs of the intertie along the Delta Mendota and California Aqueduct canals. He said the intertie that moves water back and forth between the canals are definitively repaired. He said the documentation developed is far better than what existed previously to the electrical failure. And the costs of repair was kept to the low six figures.
Water Forecast
Arroyave asked Liz Kiteck of the USBR to report. She said all the federal reservoirs are in good shape. She said this includes the new situation due to Klamath dam removals. Shasta is in good shape as is Folsom. New Melones is at 1.9 million a/f. The Delta is being operated for salinity standards and that will cut back this month. There is a high Delta outflow but there is still the Fall X2 line coming up next month. X2 is the distance from the Golden Gate salt water intrudes into the Delta. More fresh water releases from the upstream reservoirs pushes the salt back.
Kiteck said beginning next week the record heatwave should break and things cool off some. It was 110 at my place yesterday so 95 is going to feel good. She said there is 460,000 a/f of federal storage in San Luis Reservoir. Diedrich asked about these figures. Kiteck said this is higher than the estimated forecast. Allison Febbo asked if the demand patterns are being used. Kiteck said there are losses that have to be added but the deliveries are based on historical usage to determine the demand pattern. The Bureau is under some criticism for having such a large amount of storage at SLR this late in the year.
Having almost half million acre feet in off stream storage while South of Delta CVP growers are having to pump groundwater while the State Board is looking at putting the area on probation isn’t considered good water management. Cannon said every drop that can be allocated is becoming more and more important. Diedrich said he doubts there is a manager in the room that doesn’t know how much water they are ordering. Barajas said you might be surprised how slack this reporting to the Bureau can be. Once this info is sent to the Bureau’s Fresno office it is sent to operators. He said it is incumbent on the contractors to get this information where it needs to be. Before taking charge at San Luis Barajas worked for the Bureau and probably has some unique insights.
Committee & Outside Reports
The Water Resources, Finance & Admin and O&M committee reports were next. I couldn’t hear the report for some reason but it was short. I did hear Director William Bourdeau said the California Water Alliance luncheon was well attended and successful.
Michael reported the Family Farm Alliance has selected a new president after the passing of Pat O’Toole and a replacement for Executive Director Dan Keppen is being sought.
Mike Wade of the California Farm Water Coalition reported on different social media strategies depending on age and other targeted demographics. He said the CFWC is 34 years old and he thanked the folks for the support. He said there are accomplishments. He said the engagement and visibility has been productive. He’s using AI now and he thanked everyone for their help.
Febbo reported on ACWA a bit and Petersen reported on the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley a bit. He said work continues on the Unified Water Plan. Petersen reported on the Collaborative Action Plan, which is a sister organization to the Blueprint. The CAP is a group of diverse stakeholders coming together to define the needs and implement solutions. That’s always the catch – implementation cost money. Your truck is getting old
and is no longer the good smelling chariot it once was. That’s the problem defined. The solution is buying a new truck. Implementing the solution requires upwards of $50,000. So, there’s that.
Closed Session
Closed session started at 11:03am. There was a trash can full of legal items to deal with. And that is what happened at the San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority meeting. Go be good to each other and yourselves.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2024 by Don A. Wright
SAN LUIS & DELTA-MENDOTA WATER AUTHORITY was established in January of 1992 and consists of approximately 2,100,000 acres of 29 federal and exchange water service contractors within the western San Joaquin Valley, San Benito and Santa Clara counties. The governing body of the Authority consists of a 19-member Board of Directors classified into five divisions with directors selected from within each division. The main conveyance is the Delta-Mendota Canal that delivers approximately 3,000,000-acre feet of water within the Authority service area. Of this amount, 2,500,000-acre feet are delivered to highly productive agricultural lands, 150,000 to 200,000-acre feet for municipal and industrial uses, and between 250,000 to 300,000 acre-feet are delivered to wildlife refuges for habitat enhancement and restoration.
Board – Chairman: Cannon Michael,
Staff – Executive Director: Federico Barajas, COO: Pablo Arroyave, Attorney: Becca Akroyd, Director Finance: Ray Tarka, Director Water Policy: J. Scott Petersen, Director O&M/Facilities: Bob Martin
Email: youtellus@sldmwa.org 209/826-9696
P.O. Box 2157 Los Banos, CA. 93635
DWR SGMA #5-022.07
