By Don A. Wright
The San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority held its board of directors meeting on Thursday, January 11, 2024 at its downtown Los Banos headquarters and on Zoom. The SLDM boardroom is upstairs in what for years I mistakenly referred to as the old Miller &
Lux building. It’s actually next door. If you have spent all your time slowly taking in the sights of Los Banos from your windshield while going to and fro on Highway 152 you’re missing one of the places in California undergoing transition while maintaining its own character. Los Banos hasn’t mowed down its city core in the name of urban renewal or redevelopment. At the same time its population has grown as folks flee the prices of the Bay Area. And it has three of the best Mexican restaurants to be found anywhere.
The Meeting
The meeting began at 9:03am with Chairman Cannon Michael calling things to order and saluting the flag of our great nation. The way you should open a government meeting in the US. Roll call was next and a quorum was established because all the kool kids showed up. During self-introductions I had a chance to ask them to speak up. There was no public comment and the consent calendar was approved with no items pulled for further discussion.
Action Items
Every now and then for legal and practical matters public agencies need to swap auditors. If I understood correctly San Luis Delta Mendota did so.
The SLDM has been working on a big, biological science project and first place at the
science fair includes a better water supply. J. Scott Petersen gave the board a run down of the proposed science plan for the next five years. He said he thought it was a pretty big deal and congratulated Cindy Meyer for her efforts to put it together. She said it is still a “living” document and she’ll stay on top of financing opportunities and coordination with legal matters, especially in regards to the Bay/Delta Program. Staff fielded a few questions to the satisfaction of the board and the plan was adopted. Good for them.
Attorney Becca Akroyd presented the board with a proposed resolution to adopt an amendment to the Water Authority’s bylaws regarding limited disclosure of confidential information that comes from closed session. From what I could tell it dealt with sharing financial matters with the members’ home boards and was in-line with the Brown Act. It was approved by the board.
Gov’t Reports
Next was the fun stuff with Petersen reporting on state and federal matters. On the federal side the EPA’s water gal is stepping down next month. How that will impact the Biden Administration’s spinning plates of Sackett decisions, PFAS and WOTUS matters – is not known.
Petersen said there will be in Sacramento a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences to review the Bay/Delta that will involve the Central Valley Project and there is an opportunity for public comment. SLMD will be there. The San Frisco Bay Keeper filed over the feds not meeting a timeline for listing the long fin smelt.
In Congress the Water Resources Development Act is moving forward. Submissions are due tomorrow and SLDM is working with its DC consultants to get its positions known. There has been some cooperation with the South Delta Water Agency for dredging some South Delta channels and he believes WRDA may be a good funding source.
Speaking of funding, Congress is looking at 12-bills between the House and Senate. There is a lot of talk about having to go into yet more continuing resolutions. What happened to adopting a budget and sticking with it? Petersen said the Farm Bill has not been progressing well at this time. There is a deadlock on resource allocation and policy for commodities verses the nutrition (aka food stamps) portion of the bill.
Former Washington DC consultant Bill Ball has moved to from lobbying to working for Speaker Mike Johnson’s office to work on water policy. Katie Schoettler has moved from working for the elected officials to lobbying.
Dennis Cardoza said funding is dominating Washington and when you mix in elections things tend to slow. He said Johnson has been receiving the same blowback from the Freedom Caucus that derailed Kevin McCarthy. He said there isn’t a sure path as to whether or not this will take out Johnson as well. Cardoza said he’ll be meeting with Senate staffers tomorrow to try to keep Central Valley projects on the table. He said he’s happy to have Schoettler on board. Good for him and her.
Petersen said Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget estimate includes $30 billion more spending than the official budget office record indicates is possible. That will depend on cutting I think about $6 billion in state spending while pulling billions more from the state’s reserve funds. Where’s the outrage? My question not Petersen’s. Watershed planning resilience and recycling has been cut. Dam safety and forecasting reservoir operations have been cut in half. The Salton Sea received a big, multi million dollar bump in funding. Petersen said the Gov’s budget did not include anything about a water bond.
On the regulatory side the California Water Commission is meeting this month to talk about a draught strategy white paper and SLDM has been working with the State Water Project contractors on comments. Water rights are included in this effort.
The California Air Resources Board is holding a training webinar about fleet vehicles and clean air regulations.
On the state side of legislation they’re back in session in Sacramento and scrambling to get the two year bills back on the table. There has been some substantive changes in the Assembly including Speaker and committee chairs. Staff consultants have stayed in place so that will help. The new Water Parks & Wildlife Chair, changed from Rebecca Bauer Kahn to Assemblywoman Diane Papan. There was a long interview with Papan in Politico. There will also be a change in the state senate leadership.
Kristin Olsen gave her report and said Petersen covered just about everything she was going to say. As for the State Budget, take it with a grain of salt, there are changes coming. However, this is the first year the rainy day fund has been tapped and of course
that made the assembly and state senate members happy. Climate has been cut and that made many sad or perhaps angered. The new Wildlife chair stated she has some different views on water rights than the previous chair and that is a good thing.
Executive Director Report
Federico Barajas began his report by saying he passed around a paper weight made from the old parts of the Jones Pumping Plant and he has a few left to give out. He said the various SLDM budgets have gone through the appropriate committees and before the budget is brought to the full board there will be a workshop held.
Barajas said there is a new Regional Director for the US Bureau of Reclamation and he has set up a meet and greet at the Mid Pacific Conference in Reno. I believe the gentleman’s name is Karl Stock.
CEO Report
Pablo Arroyave said all six of the intertie units are all up and running. This will help with extra flood water and add flexibility. Jones is down to four units due to
maintenance and it comes back on line within a week. The O’Neal pumps are down for six weeks and there are plans in place to deal with this matter.
Water Report
Tom Patton, USBR gave the CVP water report. He said things are looking good from the storage perspective. He’s hoping for better weather. Shasta is at 3.5 million a/f and things are operating at normal winter conditions. Folsom Reservoir is releasing minimum winter flow and may be cut further. Further south to the Tributaries on the Stanislaus and other rivers inflow has increased and so have releases.
Patton said the Jones Plant is down to four pumps. The federal share of San Luis Reservoir is expected to fill next month. He said the January first data from the state doesn’t look good. The average is 40 to 60 percent of normal. There is a system moving in this weekend but it will be followed by drier, warmer conditions.
Committee Reports
The committees reports were next and there weren’t any. Mike Wade gave the California Farm Water Coalition report saying he conducted a tour last week. He said CFCW brings influencers but he said the Future Farmers of America has a water competition for its
members and there was a tour for the students. They saw the Jones Plant, the Romero Visitor Center at San Luis Reservoir and the Mendota Dam. He said it was a fantastic opportunity and even he learned something. The next influencer tour will be later this month in the Coachella Valley.
Director John Varela was going to give the ACWA report but wasn’t available. Hope all is well. I also understand there is a new chair at the Santa Clara Valley WD where Varela serves.
Petersen gave the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley and Fresno ID/North Kings GSA’s Kassy Chauhan has taken on the treasurer position. He said the Blueprint had a good number of meetings and networking advancements at the latest ACWA conference. There are also letters of support for legislation and comments on the Bay/Delta Plan that could align well with the Southern California Water Coalition position. Petersen said the SJR settlement has led to a unified water plan that could address demand supply gaps. This is being led by the California Water Institute at Fresno State University.
Related to the Blueprint is the Cooperative Action Program, a diverse group of stakeholders with water interests in California, has been engaging in Delta flows, groundwater and legislation. Petersen said the CAP could use some westside grower help to round out the membership.
Central California Irrigation District’s General Manager Jarred Martin gave an update on the Mendota Dam repairs. He said the dam was built on sand that was itself resting on a foundation of sand, overlying a sand layer. It needs to be dewatered and addressed. He said there was pushback from enviros but – and it needs to be said because it can be a rare event – the USBR stepped up and made it work. Good for them. Martin thanked the Bureau and SLDM for all the help.
Closed Session
The meeting then went into closed session at 10:53am for employee review, anticipated litigation and existing litigation. The lack of an item of real property prevented the closed session from hitting the Brown Act trifecta. Well, that was that at San Luis Delta Mendota. Good 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
