The Tehama Colusa Canal Authority held its Wednesday, February 2, 2022 board meeting in person and on telephone conference from its Willows headquarters. The meeting began at 9:00am with roll call and a quorum was established by General Manager Jeff Sutton. Chairman Ken LaGrande asked for a motion to continue meeting with the remote option required under state law settings aside some provisions to the Brown Act. That passed and the meeting officially got underway.
The Meeting
Things kicked in with approval of the agenda. Under public comment I was able to thank the board for allowing remote access. As long as I don’t have a helicopter to take me to my jet to take me to my helicopter in the Sacramento Valley to take me to meetings up there, I have to drive. So remote access really helps.
The minutes were approved and Sutton gave the financial report. There was a budget overrun due to the dry conditions. TCCA has a dry year budget just in case. That’s probably not the legal term and they only keep one set of books but they have reserves for dry years. There was some budget transfers and the report was approved.
USBR Report
The US Bureau Reclamation’s Rich Robertson reported Lake Shasta is only 36 percent full. He did hear the groundhog saw his shadow and that could mean six more weeks of rain. The good folks up there are setting up a well network for pump back into the canal under the Warren Act and water quality is being inspected. This is the last year for the
current Warren Act contract so Sutton will be speaking with others about including their wells in the future. It sounded like Robertson said he’d like to get the contracts to go for 10-years instead of the current five. Sutton said they also test the canal regularly for water quality so there is a backstop in place.
Sutton said TCCA has its 215 Contract in place. This is the same as when Friant has a 215 event, more water/lower rates. Good for them. Now if it’ll just rain.
GM Report
Sutton began his report with O&M matters. He said staff and employees kicked butt and got a lot of work done, even in the very wet December and Sino Cooties work absence. He gave a long list of tasked completed ranging from electrical and mechanical fixes to weed abatement. Sutton said a mouse gave its life to shut down a variable frequency drive motor by squeezing into a closed area and throwing itself against an electrical connection. That has been repaired.
There have been reports of windy conditions in Northern California and that is delaying some of the terrestrial and aquatic herbicide spraying. It’s also dehumidifying the air. It was said Round Up is hard to get and expensive. There are deadlines on completing fish screens looming this month.
It sounded to me like the consensus is to not fill the Corning Canal yet even though this is normally the time frost control water would run. I think of citrus when I think of frost but I don’t believe there’s much citrus up there, maybe I’m wrong. So, maybe who knows what other crop benefits from frost control? Sutton said if a 215 conditions comes into play running in the Corning Canal can change on a dime. Sutton also thanked the Bureau for helping with some power problems and getting cooperation from PG&E to get juice to the some much needed facilities by February 11th.
Next Sutton spoke about meetings and presentations. He said there was a good amount of safety training for employees. He said he meet with Tonia Trujillo from the Department of Interior. She was also at the Friant Kern Canal groundbreaking so she must have toured the CVP while here in California. He said Trujillo seems like a straight shooter.
Sutton said the Mid Pacific Conference went pretty well considering the number of Covid cases. He said even so it was a good thing to see folks in person. On the drive over the snow was encouraging although, there wasn’t much at Reno. He said the allocations were disappointing but the Bureau vowed to support Sacramento Valley contractors to its best ability.
There was a concern about lighting on a facility on the Sacramento River near Redding. Some group representing fish and game said the extra light was attracting fish which in turn attracted predators. There is also a homeless encampment near there and maybe the enviros were concerned about bears eating nomads and contracting diseases.
General Business
Every year elected officials in California have to file a Form 700 economic statement to prove they aren’t double dealing. That’s due April fools’ day. Also, they have to go through ethics and harassment training, in case they’re not good at it.
Sutton talked a bit about 2022 Central Valley Project operations and water transfers. He said they came out of the water year with one of the worst carry over situations in history. He said in 2011 there was a dry Januarys and by the end of February it started getting wet. He said the good news is the soil conditions around Shasta are good. There’s been a saturation and inflow should be good if and when the storms come. It sounded like the big concern at Shasta will be a vibrant temperature control pool.
There are however, good conditions at Folsom that could help in the long run. Orville is looking better also. Sutton said there is some reason for hope especially in comparison to some years like I believe 2013 when a dry January was followed by dry, dry, dry.
Attorney’s Report
Andrea Clark reported a summary judgement on the WINN Act contract conversion process is moving forward with a possible consolidation in the wings. She said that’s about all there was to report. It is grinding slowly in part because of a major staffing shortages and criminal cases have to come first. The WINN Act issues make for complicated cases and the judges are asking those involved to try to narrow down as much of the problem as possible. There was more but it was in closed session.
Sutton spoke briefly on the Sites Project saying there should be a new financing proposal in place by the end of March which is one more step to groundbreaking. He said the Bureau is working cooperatively and are there new folks from all over the state interested in
participating. Who knows? There might be another bright spot in California water before long. Sutton said the new interests help move the dialog along.
Closed Session
The meeting then went into closed session at 10:03am for four cases of existing litigation, one case of anticipated litigation and various water transfer negotiations. That was that, go be good to each other.
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TEHAMA COLUSA CANAL AUTHORITY: 5513 Highway 162, Willows, CA 95988 Telephone: 530/934-2125 www.tccanal.com
STAFF: General Manager – Jeffrey Sutton, O&M Chief – Jeff Yancy, Administration – Lisa Dicharry, Attorney – Andrea Clark
DIRECTORS: Chair – Kenneth LaGrande-LaGrande WD, Vice-Chair – Halbert Charter-Colusa CWD, Linda Hayes-Corning WD Glenn Kelley-Cortina WD, Tom Charter-Davis WD, Jonnalee Henderson-Dunnigan WD, Wade Mathis-4M WD, Sandy Denn-Glenn Colusa ID, Joel Mann-Glide WD, Ron Lee-Holthouse WD, Wade Danley-Kanawha WD, Larry Brockman-Kirkwood WD, Jim Jones-Orland Artois WD, Dan Jones-Proberta WD, Bart Fleharty-Thomas Creek WD & Blake Vann-Westside WD.
TCCA
The Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority (TCCA) is a Joint Powers Authority comprised of 17 Central Valley Project water contractors. The service area spans four counties (Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, and Yolo) along the west side of the Sacramento Valley, providing irrigation water to farmers growing a variety of permanent and annual crops. TCCA operates and maintains the 140 mile Tehama-Colusa and Corning canals irrigation water supply system. The service area is approximately 150,000 acres, producing over $250 million in crops per year, and contributing $1 billion to the regional economy annually.
