WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Meeting Minutes
April 16th, 2009

The following is a summary of the Westside Resource Conservation District Board of Directors special meeting held on April 16th 2009, at the Westlands Water District Five Points office.

President Phil Erro convened the meeting at 10:15 AM with four Directors, one short of a quorum. A copy of the draft minutes of the March meeting was posted on the Westside RCD web site and was e-mailed to the Directors prior to April 16th. On a motion by Director Clausen seconded by Director Blankenship, the minutes were approved by the four Directors present.

There were no public comments.

Under financial report, the Manager outlined the current financial condition of the District. There was cash available to address some payables. The payables, bank statements and most recent financial report from the accounting office were reviewed by Finance Committee Chair Director Clausen. Director Clausen reviewed the reports and proposed payables with the Board and recommended paying the bills that were presented at this time. Under a motion by Director Clausen, seconded by Director Brughelli the payables were approved unanimously.

Under the “President’s Corner” of the Director reports President Erro offered the following items. Several items of interest President Erro mentioned as a preface to the agenda items included the “water march” activity of the Latino Water Caucus, the US Interior Secretary Salazar announcement on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) expenditures in California and the numerous proposed California Water Bond alternatives. Then the discussion moved to the specific “clean diesel” program through US Environmental Protection Agency. The program will be like the CA “Carl Moyer” program for replacing dirty diesel engines with newer, cleaner diesel engines or converting to electric motors. Farm operators can apply to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. The proposed dollars available are 5 million and either stationary or mobile units will be eligible. President Erro handed out a matrix on how to organize diesel engine information. No announcement has been made yet about availability but the activity will cover 50HP or larger engines. The goal is nitrogen oxide reduction and older engines get priority. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Quality Incentives Program will have funds primarily for diesel emission reduction and for water efficiency, drainage, and conservation tillage and erosion control. The money will need to be granted by September 30, 2009. USDA Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) will also focus on diesel emissions reduction. Water is likely covered under the Agricultural Water Efficiency Program (AWEP). The CA Department of Food and Agriculture also has a notice of grants for specialty crop marketing.  Next President Erro presented the draft Westside RCD grant administration policy. Director’s Clausen and Brughelli participated in the review of the proposal. The proposal includes the directions for applicants and the needs of the District including the process whereby the District receives payment before disbursing payments to the grant recipient. The policy will be reviewed again before final adoption at a subsequent Board meeting. President Erro then talked about the tour of Panoche Water District’s drainage water management activities. Manager Green passed around the PowerPoint summary of their activities. Basically the project is limited to re-cycling and growing salt-tolerant or halophyte crops. They also discharge some drainage to the San Luis Drain and hence Mud Slough and the San Joaquin River. They do not use IFDM solar evaporators at this time. The total drainage yield is 40,000 AF with 18,000 blended, 14,000 applied to Jose Tall Wheat Grass followed by 6,000 to Bermuda grass and finally 4,000 AF to the Grasslands By-Pass or San Luis Drain connection.

There were no other Director reports at this time.

Under the Manager reports, Resolution 2009-04 was presented for adoption. The resolution continues the master contract with CA Department of Water Resources to continue drainage management work at Red Rock Ranch, Tulare Lake Drainage District and Panoche Water District.  The motion to adopt was made by Director Clausen, seconded by Director Brughelli and unanimously adopted. Under natural resource programs the manager mentioned the CA Department of Conservation watershed coordinator grant application process was postponed due to the lack of State funds from Bond sales. The proposed Westside habitat recovery efforts were proposed to be supplemented by a corollary project proposed by Sustainable Conservation. Their focus would be in the Arroyo Pasajero area around the existing CA Fish and Game Ecological Reserve. Their proposal was available for review by the Board and land owners. They were specifically looking for outreach partners for the effort. The manager suggested Board of Directors Anderson and Finster who were previously with the “Stewards of the Arroyo Pasajero”. Finally the manager mentioned that for Resource Conservation District consolidation to occur, additional members of the Board need to be appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
 
Next the USDA-NRCS partner representative, Dave Durham, made a summary presentation on the ARRA stimulus money and what programs would be implemented. Guidelines would be ready by May 8th. The new Farm Bill is still the main guideline. An early implementation application process under AWEP was already getting responses, one from wetlands managers and another from Kings River Conservation District. The proposals can include work spread over one to five years and can be adjusted each year. They need to be turned in by the end of April. A large effort in CA, as mentioned by President Erro, will be in the air quality efforts. The USDA State Conservationist will have the discretion on these applications and efforts. The newest effort is a goal to remove older mobile diesel engines from circulation. Replacement of equipment will be prioritized in tiers with equipment older than 1995 in the first tier and newer equipment in the last tier.  Equipment replacement will require a dealer letter that the engine can’t be replaced, retrofitted or upgraded. Removed engines will need to have a hole punched in the block to prevent re-use. Finally, DWR representative Ken Johnson gave a brief report on activities at Red Rock Ranch. A wind turbine for electricity was installed that rose to a height of 140 feet.

There were no further reports and the meeting was adjourned unanimously at 11:45 AM.

Sargeant J. Green, Secretary-Manager

On April 16, 2009 Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Conner and the staffs of Senator Feinstein, Senator Boxer, Representative Radanovich, and Representative Costa went to John Diener's farm to see his Integrated On-farm Drainage Management system and were convinced that it does not discharge salts, selenium, or other harmful wastes to the environment.

Also, on April 22, 2009, John Diener received the Soil and Water Consrvation Society Award.