Please note: This report is by Josh Dowell.
On Tuesday, April 21st the Western Canal Water District held its monthly board of directors meeting. Due to the invisible force that has kept most of our family and friends at home this meeting was held via conference call. On a personal note, I hope that we can get back to reality soon. I’m young guy and conference calls are a pain in the you-know-what, even for us millennials.
Board President Greg Johnson called the meeting to order at 9am sharp and started off with approval of the minutes from the last regular meeting on March 17th and a series of special meetings that were hosted on March 11th, April 3rd, and April 8th. WCWD General Manager Ted Trimble followed on the standard orders with a financial report that has the district in good standing, although all of us with investments are seeing some of those holdings take a hit due to declining interest rates. The board approved their monthly expenditures as expected.
Lake Oroville is currently sitting at around 821ft elevation or 2.44 million acre feet in storage. A lack of rain in the forecast has it looking like that deliveries will begin out of the reservoir in the next week or so. Month after month Lake Oroville capacity will begin to decline as we begin the irrigation season and temperatures rise. A good thing to note though is that everyone is working their ground, so the demand curve for water is relatively linear and the district will be able to make on time delivery in most cases.
Trimble next described to the board the 2020 water service contracts outside district lands. Two of the of the out of district requests are for habitat maintenance and the other for a small plot in Glenn County. The board went ahead and moved to approve the contracts without discussion. Currently, there is a special election within LAFCo (Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission.) The board decided to align themselves with the Butte County Farm Bureau and cast their vote for Larry Bradley of the Durham Park and Recreation District in the special election.
Attorney Dustin Cooper described to the board the next agenda item, Resolution 2020 – 01-Declaration of a Local Emergency. The declaration would help potential reimbursement from FEMA if anything extreme were to happen to district affairs in the current global pandemic. As well as increase the responsibility of district management to ensure that the district can maintain its operations if a sudden change were to occur with staff falling ill. The board approved the resolution and made special note of their essential service status to ensure that employees can perform their job duties un-impaired.
Reports from the board rounded out discussion. A general theme of these reports were for all to stay safe and healthy in these trying times. I would also like to thank again, President Johnson, Directors Eric Larrabee, Bryce Lundberg, Daniel Robinson and Josh Sheppard for being courteous and moving their reports prior going into closed session. It definitely made life a little easier and I have to commend them for it.
DISCLAIMER OF RESPONSIBILITY; WaterWrights.net strives to provide readers and clients with the most complete, up-to-date, and accurate information available. Nevertheless, WaterWrights.net 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.net’s clients therefore rely on the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of information from WaterWrights.net 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 2020 by WaterWrights.net 
Josh Dowell
WESTERN CANAL WATER DISTRICT
2003 Nelson Road, Nelson Ca 95958, P.O. Box 190 Richvale Ca 95974-0190
Directors: Greg Johnson – President, Eric Larrabee – Vice President, Bryce Lundberg, Daniel Robinson and Josh Sheppard
Management and Staff: Ted Tremble – General Manager, Craig Myers – Assistant GM Operations & Maintenance, Anjanette Shadley – Assistant GM Administration & Communications and Dustin Cooper – Attorney,
Background: Western Canal Water District (District) was formed by a vote of landowners on December 18, 1984 as a California Water District, and currently encompasses a land area of approximately 67,500 acres, of which approximately 59,000 acres are irrigable. The District purchased the “Western Canal” water system from Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), who had acquired it from the Great Western Power Company. The canal was originally developed by the Western Canal Company, which began operations in 1911.
