By Don A. Wright
The San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority held its board of directors meeting on Thursday, June 6, 2024 at its Los Banos headquarters. It’s been a while since I’ve attended in person and the old boardroom looks the same. Same snacks, same fairly comfortable chairs packed tightly and the quasi-art deco building is just as charming as ever. There is a new headquarters in the works and it will be shared with the Exchange Contractors and a
museum to boot. A good amount of history was made around Los Banos. I guess you could say there’s a lot of history everywhere but most of it was not recorded and much of it insubstantial for how we interact with the world lived in today. Also I got to sit by Stewart Davis, SLDM’s IT Director. IT guys are good to know. Like having a brother in law who’s down with auto electrics.
The Meeting
Things kicked into gear at just about the scheduled 9:30am start time. Chairman Canon Michael wasn’t present, hope all is well and Vice Chair William Bourdeau was running things. We saluted the flag of the greatest nation on earth. Then we introduced ourselves and Bourdeau read the boilerplate announcements about public comment and such.
There were no additions or corrections to the agenda nor any public comment. The consent calendar was approved with one item pulled. Anthea Hansen noticed one of the staff reports was missing from the packet. General Counsel Becca Akroyd stepped up and straightened out the matter. The report was online and will be revisited next month.
Attorney Diane Van Atta Rathmann, former general counsel for the SLDM was presented the Golden Bucket Award and gratitude for the many years of her work. She was the first attorney when the authority was first formed. Executive Director Federico Barajas presented her the highest honor at the authority’s disposal. Dan Nelson, was present and he’s the first Exec Director of the authority. Dan O’Hanlon current outside counsel to the
authority had some nice words to say. Rathmann thanked everyone and there was a genuine display of appreciation and affection to her.
Akroyd added the help she’s received from Rathmann has been amazing and she thanked her for all the insight shared. Hansen thanked Rathmann for her mentoring. Chris White thanked Rathmann and Nelson for their help. He’s the former General Manager for Central California Irrigation District and said Rathmann’s father was their attorney, so she comes by it naturally. The board unanimously endorsed and thanked Rathmann for her work. That was the only action item.
Reports
Wow, COO Pablo Arroyave announced for the first and only time in the SLDM history the emergency fund was tapped. The district’s engineer Jacob Bejarano showed photos of what happened last year when one of the big storms breached a levee and flooded into the Delta Mendota Canal. It tore up a bridge, wasted a couple of concrete panels and
introduced several butt loads of sediment into the canal. (Sorry for the technical lingo, it was a situation that couldn’t be explained in layman terms.) The repairs included a lot of dredging and divers were able to set a flexible form where new concrete panels into place without dewatering the canal.
I remember one time about 15, 20-years ago they dewatered the DMC and found a stolen airplane in the bottom.
Gov’t Mischief
J. Scott Petersen reported on federal matters saying the US Bureau of Reclamation has a new dam safety director who was out here inspecting the BF Sisk Dam at San Luis Reservoir. More good news, more than $100 million new dollars has been awarded to the San Luis Delta Mendota portion of the Central Valley Project. This money will be available to SLDM agency members.
The Water Resources Development Act got another big slug of coinage for the Army Corps of Engineers to spend on western water needs. Petersen said the Senate version includes loans for Water Infrastructure Finance Investment Act, I think that’s what WIFIA stands for. I’m sure someone will correct me if needed.
Petersen said the Farm Bill now has a House version and some of it will include a good boost in conservation funds that will benefit California farmers. This is often a geographical fight as opposed to a partisan fight.
He said the California congressional delegation has stepped up and is working well together in other matters. The Delta consultation moves forward and the schedule for the biological opinions has been released. This is in the board packet. I just read a Politico story about how dangerous this re-consultation will be to fish unless everything proposed previous to the Biden and after the Obama Administration is shelved.
Lobbyist Dennis Cardoza reported online from Washington DC saying he’s looking forward for a delegation from SLDM to show up in town and he said there is a good slew of meetings scheduled. Petersen added Vince Fong was sworn in as California’s newest congressman and he’s going to be invited to dinner while they’re back there. Cardoza said he’s talked with Fong and he is interested and excited to be working on water.
Petersen then reported on state matters. He said Governor Gavin Newsom released the
May revise of the state budget and there are still significant differences between that and the legislative version of the budget. Funds are shifting all around. The Green House Gases fund has been tapped and somehow this cuts funds for the Voluntary Agreements. ACWA is on this in hopes of moving the money back to water needs.
There are three Climate Bond proposals leaked to Politico – $6.5 billion, $8 billion and $10 billion. It looks like the legislature is liking the big number. AB 460 by Rebecca Bauer Kahn has been resubmitted. While she did remove most of the new powers to the State Water Resources Control Board it kept the big @zz fines and penalties increase. He said this was a huge win although there are still concerns. AB 1337 by Buffy Wicks is still out there and that has to do with compliance and enforcement authority for curtailments. Not
much new but they are keeping an eye on it. AB 2079, by our old friend Steve Bennett has been amended in some positive direction but it’s still a monster. This is the one DWR is backing and is a hostile action against the Central Valley’s need for wells.
Kristen Olsen reported support for the $10 billion bond is starting to firm up. There is also an education bond moving forward as well. There is a June 27th deadline, maybe July 3rd if they push it, and the Governor and the Assembly and the state Senate will have to have an agreement. Everyone from the water world is working to ensure a big bucket in the climate bond dealing with water. One of the budget moves the legislators didn’t like the Governor’s reduction on social service funds and put them back in the mix. She mentioned SB 1255 by Dodd saying there is a lot of support in the water world but there is a great deal of concern about the opt out as opposed to the opt in provision.
Executive Director Report
Barajas spoke on the BF Sisk Dam saying the Bureau kicking in another $75 million is an expression of strong policy support. He said that brings the total federal contribution to $170 million. Good for them.
Barajas reminded the board a two/thirds majority of the SLDM membership must agree to implementation of the east/west drought agreement MOU. The home boards have to report back to Akroyd to register their buy-in. A committee needs to be established and Barajas
said he’s going to be reaching out to members about this. He asked Akroyd to clarify. She said to expect tomorrow’s deadline for the cost component review of the second amended MOU to become final. If I understood her this MOU and agreement will require a change to the SLDM Joint Powers Bylaws. Once this is wrapped up Friant Water Authority voting representatives will join the O&M meetings.
Barajas said SLDM is looking to hire a contractor to conduct a survey of members to help determine spending for the future.
COO Report
Arroyave said there was a July 15th through mid-August shutdown of the Gianelli Pumping Plant at the O’Neil Forebay to the San Luis Reservoir to replaced old transformers. That was
cancelled as it became apparent the loss of storage would have been massive. The plan has been changed to three or four limited outages over the course of the next year. He said he just heard the Jones Plant will go to five units. That’s good news.
Water Report
Liz Knecht of the USBR reported she hopes to keep the five units going for a while. She expects the Vernalis flows will drop back as the San Joaquin River reservoirs scale back releases. The Bureau’s temperature control plans have been submitted to the State Board and the National Marine Fisheries Service and she doesn’t expect any problems there. She says Folsom Reservoir looks good as is New Melones. They should be available to tap to keep the pumps running. There has to be an average 3,000 cfs at Vernalis during June for the Bay Delta flow standard. She said SLR looks good also. So a pretty positive report from the Bureau.
Lon Martin asked about the cold water pool at Shasta and was told it looks good and there shouldn’t be any temperature problems this year.
Committee & Outside Reports
Next Bourdeau reported the water resources committee met and was very impressed and thankful for the emergency response staff made in the report on the flood impacts on the DMC. The finance and O&M committees met as well.
The State & Federal Contractors Water Agency had no report. Petersen reported the Family Farm Alliance will have a July retreat to deal with the loss of Chairman Pat O’Toole. He also said Executive Director Dan Keppen has been hinting about retiring and that’s got everyone clutching their pearls. I don’t blame them, Keppen’s a good guy to work with for sure. I don’t know who could replace him. The California Farm Water Coalition gave its report about outreach and social media stats. Looking good.
John Varela reported on ACWA and he introduced Dr. Steve Blumenshine as a member of the ACWA Foundation. Blumenshine invited everyone in the room to stay in contact with him. He runs the water education and outreach for the entire California State University system. He said he’s happy to engage as everything in California is no less than one degree from water.
Petersen reported on the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley. There was an MOU signed at the recent ACWA conference with Metropolitan Water District to find common ground. There is a unified water plan for the San Joaquin Valley effort to reach out to the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies in the Valley. There will be more info following.
Petersen also reported on the Collaborative Action Plan and things are moving forward and getting more complex initial wise – like the SJ2CAP – or whatever he said but things are
still about bringing together diverse views to find common ground to work together. There is also a range of water improvements from remediation of salty groundwater to recycling or any such improvement in supplies. He urged any organization with such plans not included in a Groundwater Sustainability Plans to reach out.
Hansen reported the Central Valley Water Project Association is meeting later today. Also under board member reports Ric Ortega thanked SLDM staff for its help.
With that the meeting went into closed session at 10:50am. It was good to get back out to Los Banos and see the good folks there. Go be good to each other and yourself.
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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
