WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Draft Meeting Minutes
February 19th, 2009

The following is a summary of the Westside Resource Conservation District Board of Directors special meeting held on February 19th 2009, at the Westlands Water District Five Points office.

President Phil Erro convened the meeting at 10:10AM and a quorum was present. During self-introductions Director Bill Pucheu of Tranquillity RCD indicated that he had been appointed by the Board of Supervisors and prepared to work with Westside RCD. The agenda required findings and approval of changes to reflect the need to add a resolution for approval. The resolution (2009-03) was for a grant application that was completed after the agenda was prepared and the grant application had a deadline before the next Board meeting. The agenda changes were added and approved on a motion by Director Clausen, seconded by Director Anderson and the new agenda was approved unanimously on a second motion by Directors Clausen and Anderson. Staff circulated a sign-up sheet that is attached and a part of these minutes. A copy of the draft minutes of the January minutes were posted on the web site and transmitted to the Directors for review. One change was requested by President Erro; he requested the sentence on pounds of salt be deleted. On a motion by Director Brughelli seconded by Director Clausen the amended minutes were unanimously approved.

There were no public comments.

Under financial report, the Manager outlined the current financial condition of the District. At this time there was the ability to address some of the payables. However, the proposed payables were still at the financial consultant’s office and the Secretary-Manager recommended the decision be postponed until the payables were finalized. The monthly bank statement was available to the Directors and it was reviewed by Director Clausen. The proposed payables list was presented to Finance Committee Chair Director Clausen.

Under the “President’s Corner” of the Director reports President Erro offered the following items. The “ForeverWater item has to be postponed until a later date. The Lorman “groundwater” class presented a summary of groundwater conditions and issues in the Valley. They included that the groundwater basin is very large, snowpack is a distant second as a storage reservoir and surface storage reservoirs assist groundwater replenishment by holding and controlling the release of surface to groundwater recharge areas. Climate change could adversely affect this process. Fasting melting of snowpack could preclude the controlled release. He also mentioned that water pressure from Westside saline water bodies could impact better quality supplies to the east. Dedicated recharge areas to the east like the sand pits near Selma could help increase groundwater levels and prevent west to east water quality changes.

Under Director reports, Director Anderson could not attend the range water quality seminar as planned.

As a preliminary discussion to the presentation of Board resolutions in the Managers report, President Erro presented a foundation for the grant applications for energy management. Two proposed grant applications were discussed. The first was a Valley “CAN” application. The application involved getting funds to help diesel water pump operators to convert back to electricity. The grant application was for $12,800 (It was subsequently learned that the District proposed use of an outside vendor for conducting the actual field work made the application ineligible). The second application was a joint project with West Hills Community College District and the City of Coalinga. The proposal involves receiving a California Energy Commission RESCO grant which is for early adoption of clean energy project. The application proposes demonstration of solar thermal and synthetic fuel strategies for College District and City facilities. The solar project can be used for the buildings the two operate and WRCD operators can participate in the synthetic fuel project by potentially providing source materials. The projects may include mirrored troughs for the solar thermal project which could provide energy for heat or cooling. A gasifier could be used for prunings, diesel could be produced from ag by-products or the unit could provide electricity.

Under the Manager’s report the three grant applications were proposed:  Resolutions 2009-01, 2009-02 and 2009-03. Resolutions 2009-01 and 02 were for the Valley CAN and RESCO energy grants. 2009-03 was added to the agenda late on behalf of Westlands Water District. It was prepared by Richard Fosse of the I-5 Business Corridor and was for ranch and farm cleanup funds for Westlands efforts on illegal waste disposal cleanup costs on District land. All three were considered in a motion by Director Johnson seconded by Director Brughelli and approved unanimously.

Under correspondence and administration the Manager was notified of the desire of a District operator to apply for a grant from USDA for a specific project with the District as the sponsor. Most previous grants had been made for District proposed activities that assist operators and landowners. No one could recall a specific operator applying for a grant through the District. Therefore there was no current process the District had to administer such a grant. The President requested ideas on how to manage such a proposal. One suggestion was that perhaps any proposed application might have to be advertised to see if other operators were interested in such an activity. Another was that a request for proposals be used for the grant opportunity. In any event the District would need to develop a process to fairly administer such a grant so as to be protective of both the District and the proposed operators. 

There were no further reports and the meeting was adjourned unanimously at 11:35AM.

                            Sargeant J. Green, Secretary-Manager