By Don A. Wright
The San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority held its board of directors meeting on Thursday, January 8, 2026 at its Los Banos headquarters and on Zoom. Perhaps you haven’t noticed but at the end of most reports there is a brief summary of the district discussed. It usually gives contact information, the names of staff and board officers and a snapshot of the data and history regarding the district or entity being reported upon. For instance; when you get to the end of this report, keep scrolling down. You’ll find that SLDM serves 2.1 million acres.
Next time you hear about how the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act has the potential to remove one million acres of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley – imagine what it would be like to have only half of the San Luis Delta Mendota farms. What would that mean to the state? It could mean abandoning the raise of the BF Sisk Dam on San Luis Reservoir due to lack of agricultural economic output. That in turn could mean a tighter tourniquet on the Los Angeles Basin’s supplies and who knows what would happen to the Colorado River negotiations and such faraway places as Wyoming?
The Meeting
Things began with a photo of J. Scott Petersen, he’s the Director of Water Policy, appearing in the middle of the monitor. All was silent. It reminded me of the opening scene of Lawrence of Arabia but without the majestic symphonic overture and of course in that film the screen was black and didn’t have a photo of Petersen in it.
Chairman Cannon Michael called the meeting to order at 9:31am and he apologized for starting 2026 one minute late. He then led the salute to the greatest flag on God’s green and blue planet. This was followed by self-introductions.
Attorney Becca Akroyd brought up something I haven’t heard before. Westlands Water District General Manager Allison Febbo was attending remotely and Akroyd asked to state the reason. Febbo said she was unable to attend due to a last-minute childcare situation. She also had to state there were no other people 18 years or older in the room. This is evidently a new provision of the Brown Act for those directors who attend a meeting remotely.
The minutes and the consent calendar were approved.
Action Items
The board then dealt with agenda items that needed to be voted on. The first item was to give Executive Director Federico Barajas a raise, he’s going to get $490,000 in salary and benefits this year. For some of you this might be beer and cigarette change from the couch cushions, but I’ll bet you one/one-hundred-thousandth of this (or $4.90) he earns every penny. Director Anthea Hansen thanked Barajas for his hard work. Good for him.
Budgets
Next COO Pablo Arroyave and Barajas gave the board a rundown of budgets. Much of the staff work for public water agencies is accounting. Of course, all good accounting relies on good budgeting. This item was for the fiscal year 2027 operations and maintenance budget, the activity budget and the complete FY 2027 budget and it passed.
The Finance & Administration Committee recommended adding the 5th amendment to the Delta Mendota Canal Subsidence Correction Project task order for the Hallmark Group to perform capital management for the project. The board approved.
Report Items
Petersen gave his rapid-fire report on state and federal affairs. He reported the US Bureau of Reclamation is taking some rather big budget cuts. He said this will trigger a lot of effort to convince Congress to kick up more coin to the Bureau. Petersen reported on the House Natural Resources Committee moving the Endangered Species Act reform forward.
Lobbyist Dennis Cardoza spoke next and commented on the passing of Congressman Doug LaMalfa. He was a good man and will be sorely missed. LaMalfa’s death leaves a huge gap in California’s federal water efforts. Governor Gavin Newsom has a limited time to call for a new election. Cardoza said he suspects Newsom will delay for as long as possible and we won’t have a full congressional representation until possibly as late as September. LaMalfa’s district is one of the ones targeted by Democrats under the recent redistricting and will almost certainly switch to a Democrat majority. LaMalfa’s sudden passing from a heart attack leaves the Congressional Republican majority with a razor thin edge over the Dems.
Cardoza also reported on the possibility of a major shortage of copper. Copper wire is a central component of most water pumps. Congressman Josh Harder has a bill to go after the golden mussel. Petersen said there is already legislation for the quagga and zebra mussel and this bill will include the golden mussel. It will provide funds to retrofit infrastructure and other anti-mussel efforts. Director Richard Santos asked Petersen if he ever takes a breath when giving his reports and Petersen said he breathes through his ears quite a bit.
There is something afoot with the Bay-Delta Plan and the enviros. On the state side Kristin Olsen-Cate reported the legislature is back and it’s moving quick. On the regulatory side the Department of Water Resources lost in court its ability to issue bonds for the one tunnel. DWR will have to go back to the legislature for this authority.
Senator Monique Limon is now the Pro Tem for the California State Senate and Olsen-Cate said she’s well-liked by her peers. State Senator Josh Becker of Silicon Valley is the new Chair of the Natural Resources Committee.
Bills from last year have until the end of this month to reactivate. AB 35 seeks to remove Prop 4 money from the executive office and other regulatory tinkering. This is usually included in a proposition but was somehow left out.
Also mentioned were: AB497, AB 362 and AB 794. AB1619, by Assemblywoman Diane Pappin is back and deals with groundwater adjudication. SB601 will have the State Board to report on the federal Sacket Decision implications for California. There is also a CEQA change initiative heading to the ballot.
She said Newsom is about to give his state of the state address that should include: California leads and not Trump, economic strength and prosperity, homelessness and mental health with a reduced homeless, affordability (a hot topic) on housing and he’s expected to bar institutional investors from purchasing house (an idea he seems to have taken from Trump). Newsom also wants to take over the state’s public education department and move it under the governor’s office. He will speak on the mental health of young men and boys and online safety for children. He’ll frame climate change as a moral and economic issue and talk about last year’s Los Angeles fires and how well the government agencies worked together. Olsen-Cate didn’t include this but I’m guessing Newsom will be fitted with asbestos underdrawers.
Executive Director’s Report
Barajas said the Bureau is looking for water donations, you might say, for the South of Delta Water Pool. He urged the members to please respond. The Bureau will not be holding the speed dating meetings at the Mid Pacific Water User’s Conference coming up soon in Reno. They will however, still honor meeting requests.
COO Report
Arroyave said all six units of the intertie have been tested and are all working. He thanked the Bureau’s Levi Johnson for stepping up and meeting the challenge when he was needed over the Christmas holiday.
Cindy Meyer gave a golden mussel update saying last week staff found additional mussels at the float line at one of the pumping stations. Valley Water, Westlands, Met WD and others are having monthly conference calls to share information on how to fight the little critters.
Johnson himself gave the USBR’s Central Valley Project update. He said the Northern California reservoirs are getting a lot of water and there will have to be flood evacuations and there was a small spill at Whiskey Town. Folsom is releasing 11,000 cfs but will be cut back to 9,000 cfs soon. New Mellones had gained storage but releases are only 200 cfs to water the equalization reservoir downstream.
The Delta is being held at 4,200 cfs pumping through the weekend. The Old & Middle River is not yet at a negative 5,000 cfs but the exports are capped at the 4,200 cfs. There could be an increase on the Old & Middle to negative 6,250 cfs so both the CVP and the State Water Project may get more exports.
Febbo asked about the Action 5 record of decision signed and asked about upcoming allocation estimates being less conservative. Johnson said, yes he believes this is so. He said it’s still a bit uncertain but he expects more flexibility from Action 5. Febbo thanked him for the increased real-time monitoring that has resulted in better supplies.
Committee & Other Reports
There were very few committee meetings over the holidays and move along, nothing to see here. That moved things to the outside agency reports. Petersen said the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley has been actively engaged in supported state legislation and doing a good job of it. The main technical effort is the Unified Water Plan and that is moving along nicely.
Petersen reported the Collaborative Action Plan is busy prioritizing its 2026 goals and agenda. There is a funding gap. Petersen thanked Jarrett Martin of CCID and Jeff Payne WWD for their hard work.
Mike Wade said the California Farm Water Coalition has an impact report coming out today and has been able to work closely on advocacy and is expanding its footprint in the Sacramento Valley. A one pager will be sent out to many, many agencies in a few days.
There were no board member reports. Jason Phillips soon to be former Executive Director of the Friant Water Authority spoke saying he appreciates the work the SLDM and Friant has done to improve east and west side cooperation.
Closed Session
Michael called the meeting at 11:06am, I think. I forgot to look at my clock for the exact time but I don’t think it will be much of a problem. Well, that’s how the good folks at San Luis Delta Mendota started their year. Go be good to each other and yourselves.
DISCLAIMER OF RESPONSIBILITY; Waterwrights strives to provide his clients with the most complete, up-to-date, and accurate information available. Nevertheless, Waterwrights does not serve as a guarantor of the accuracy or completeness of the information provided, and specifically disclaims any and all responsibility for information that is not accurate, up-to-date, or complete. Waterwrights’ clients therefore rely on the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of information from DAW entirely at their own risk. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not represent any advertisers or third parties.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2026 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
