By Don A. Wright
The San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority held its board of directors meeting on Thursday, September 11, 2025 at its Los Banos headquarters and on Zoom, the preferred online meeting platform for those of us continuously challenged by Microsnot Teams non-user friendly operations. This time the good folks there went Zoom.
The Meeting
The meeting was scheduled to began at 9:30am and it kicked off at 9:32pm, just enough time to grab another cup of coffee. Chairman Cannon Michael ran through the Brown Act boiler plate and things. Then he asked us to pray for our country on this
anniversary of the horrific 9/11 attacks and of course the cowardly murder of Charlie Kirk. And with that we all; whether at home or in person saluted the flag of our great nation.
There were no additions or corrections to the agenda nor were there any public comments. The consent calendar was next. The minutes, financial and staff reports were all approved without comment. Nothing was pulled. Good for them.
Action Items
CEO Federico Barajas explained to the board some of the finer points of the
Planning Committee and the Finance & Administration Committee recommendations regarding the Phase I cost allocation recommendations for the upper portion of the Delta Mendota Canal subsidence correction project. This is a $91 million question for bringing the designed cubic feet per second back to the canal. There are other tasks that include repairing panels on the canal. There are also millions of dollars needed to fix the lower portion of the canal. If the funding becomes available good, if not various scenarios have been drawn up for self-funding parts of this project. A $30 million and a $60 million scenario are available for the members.
Attorney Becca Akroyd read the suggested motion. Director Justin Diener had questions about revising the scope of the project to meet the funding availability. Barajas said it boils down to only completing the portions of the project affordable. Diener was curious about the DWR funds and how that won’t have strings that could limit how to spend this money or the state coming through with follow up for the agreed work. Barajas said Task One and Two have the most benefit. Diener said he is on board with going forward since staff is pursuing additional non-reimbursable funding for at least $60 million. Director Anthea Hansen pointed out it would be better to frame this as a targeted cost between $40 million and $60 million. The board unanimously approved staff moving forward.
The Finance & Admin Committee recommended the Authority spend $446,440 to increase the contract for the DCI (Delta-Mendota California-Aqueduct Intertie) Unit 1 & 2 motor control centers replacement from the fiscal year 2026 EO&M budget (Extraordinary Operations & Maintenance). COO Pablo Arroyave said this work was approved previously but the cost went up since then. Why? Because the work had to be completed sooner than expected and the wrong union labor rates were used. The whole board went along with it.
Gov’t Stuff
J. Scott Petersen gave the board the lowdown on House Resolution 4879 by Jim Costa-D, called the Emergency Rural Water Response Act of 2025. Staff now recommends
supporting this bill. There is an existing grant program in the farm bill that needed tinkering so the eligibility would be expanded. It’s meant to help disadvantaged communities get funds for improved domestic water but the population requirements were too big. Now they’re just right. I guess.
There is Senate Bill 707 by State Senator Maria Elena Durazo dealing with open meetings and teleconference requirements. Petersen said the main problem was how a legislative body was defined that would have laid a lot of extra time, expense and headaches to special districts. The bill was altered and the board approved SLDM supporting both pieces of legislation.
Reports
The gooberment report continued. Petersen said most of the state and federal affairs report was in the board packet. However, he wanted everyone to know Congressman Costa held a meeting in the area and Congressman Adam Grey and his DC staff toured the pumps at the Delta.
A couple of executive orders were issued from President Donald Trump. This EO will help ensure any grants awarded are going towards the administration’s goals. Petersen said the US Senate is having to change its rules to get non-cabinet level appointments moving forward. A Dr. Tim Petty was nominated to a position with the Department of Commerce and that was well received by SLDM. Sounded like they’ve worked well with him in the past.
Petersen said the big talk is end of the year appropriations. He said it will be inevitable to have a continuing resolution as the deadline is at the end of this month. He said there is friction between the administration and congress on releasing funds that could lead to a lawsuit over the purse strings. Another big deal is permitting reform.
Consultant and former Congressman Dennis Cardoza said there were other bills surrounding permitting that include a bill by Congressman Bruce Westerman that passed the house. There is also some good news in the transportation lane to move some legislation by friendly Republican Congressmen and Senators. This would help when expanding dams like at the BF Sisk Dam at San Luis Reservoir and the Sites project. The word is to expand an existing program would be better than trying to invent a new one.
On the state side Kristin Olsen-Cate reported on what Petersen intimated was too little, too late funding releases from the Prop Four wallet. Petersen said on the state side SLDM hosted Assembly Ag Chair Esmerelda Soria at the HQ for a talk about water.
Olsen-Cate said it is crazy end of session time and this is the craziest in decades. She said SB 695 State Senator Anna Caballero passed both houses to help with the San Luis Dam roadwork. It looks like the gov likes it. AB 1319 that would give California Fish & Game more power to list endangered species. There were some abstentions on the senate from Valley electeds but it looks like a major veto effort. The budget bills will be voted on this evening. SB 105 is up for votes as well. She said Soria and Caballero are helping with this. The Delta Conveyance Project has been pushed to next year. The legislation session will be expanded one full day. The deadline for passing bills is Friday but there were many bills that couldn’t make the 72-hour notice requirement so they’re just extending the deadline. AB 1314 by Assemblywoman Diane Papan will most likely become a two-year bill and move to the inactive file.
CEO Report
Barajas’s report centered on some developments at the US Bureau of Reclamation. Turns out much of the Bureau’s accounting activities have been transferred to the Department of Interior and that is slowing down bill payments from the Bureau. God bless them over at the Bureau.
COO Report
Arroyave said Levi Johnson would join the meeting and boom on Zoom, there he was. Johnson is the big dog at the Bureau’s office regarding moving water around the Central
Valley Project. Johnson said there will be an outage at the O’Neil Pumping Plant for repairs in November. He said the temperatures in the Sacramento Valley have been good. There are competing needs along the Sacramento River but things are in good shape. Same for the American River, things are looking good.
Johnson said there is good pumping in the Delta and San Luis Reservoir is gaining supply on both the state and federal side. He said New Melones is flatlined as there have been good water years lately, so not much to report until next year. So that was Arroyave’s report.
Committee & Outside Agency Reports
There were no committee reports. Michael said the Family Farm Alliance will have a
meeting next week and the annual Reno meeting will be October 30th and 31st where Executive Director Dan Keppen will pass the torch to the new Exec Samantha Barncastle.
Brandon Souza gave the California Farm Water Coalition report by phone. He said they sent a letter to the media explaining how cuts in surface water has been the main driver of subsidence. Good for them. They also sent something out about the VAs being good. Hmm. He said they’ve been working with the Family Farm Alliance on supporting the growing of alfalfa; a crop that doesn’t get media love.
There was no ACWA update but Petersen reported on the Water Blueprint. He said the hiring of the Sacramento firm West Coast Advisors has been a big plus and he wanted to be sure to give a shout out about that. He encouraged everyone to get involved in the Blueprint as there will be a substantial amount of work between the Blueprint and Metropolitan WD on recharge in the Valley.
Board Reports & Closed Session
There were no board member reports. However, there were 13 items of litigation in closed session. There was also an item I’ve never seen before – “Threat to Public Services or Facility” to be presented by Barajas and Akroyd. Hmm? In consideration of Michael’s introductory remarks one hopes there is never any danger for any of our water world folks. Well, that was that for San Luis Delta Mendota. Go be good to each other and yourselves.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2025 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
