WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Meeting Minutes
September 17th, 2009

Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order by President Phil Erro at 10:15 AM. The following persons were in attendance.

Board of Directors in attendance;  President Erro, Linda Anderson, Gene Brughelli, Jorgen Clausen, John Diener, Craig Finster and Sam Johnson.

Others in attendance;  Sarge Green, Secretary-Manager, Jim Cooper, Dave Durham - USDA-NRCS, Clarence Finch, Ken Johnson and Roberta Howe - CA DWR and Dan Schara: Westlands Water District.

Agenda and Minutes:

A quorum was present. The agenda was found adequate for conducting the meeting and a motion made for approval by Director Diener, seconded by Director Brughelli and unanimously adopted. The meeting minutes for the August meeting were posted on the Westside RCD web site and e-mailed to the Directors prior to the meeting. Director Clausen moved approval of the August minutes, Director Diener seconded and the minutes were unanimously adopted.

Public Comments:

There were no public comments.

Reports:

Under financial report, the Manager outlined the current financial condition of the District. Several warrants approved in the previous month were presented for signature and a receivable posted to the account that allowed for additional warrants that were being printed by the accountant. The warrants were signed and the proposed payables approved on a motion by Director Clausen, seconded by Director Brughelli and unanimously adopted.

Under the Presidents Corner, President Erro reviewed the potential availability of funds from the Eucalyptus Association. Western Shasta RCD proposes to return funds to the Association because they donít want to plant Eucalyptus due to the fire danger in their pine forest areas. The Association has offered the funds to Westside. A discussion followed on who wanted Eucalyptus and whether the funds could be used to grow other tree species. Director Erro reported that Allan Narbaitz wanted 30 Eucalyptus seedlings. Sam Johnson will check with Harris Ranch.  Evidently other tree species can be grown. Director Anderson reported rabbits were a problem for young growth. Director Finster reported his organization preferred Poplar varieties. Director Brughelli did not see a need for Tumey Gulch. Director Erro asked the Directors if we should accept the funds. The Association member to contact is Vashek Cervinka. Director Diener made a motion to seek the $3,500.00, Director Finster seconded and the motion was unanimously approved. The Manager will prepare a letter seeking the funds.

President Erro summarized the upcoming ìenergy conference at Edison AgTAC. Interested parties need to register on the San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organizationís web page. He also announced a meeting of the San Joaquin Valley Resource Conservation and Development Council to be held at the Center for Irrigation Technology offices at Fresno State on October 22nd. Manager Green and Dick Moss, Vice-President of Provost and Pritchard Consulting Group would be speaking on water conditions in the San Joaquin Valley.

There were no other Director reports.

The next Directorsí discussion item was a review of the RCD meeting schedule and alternate methods of conducting the meetings. Alternates such as a conference call system, bi-monthly meetings and quarterly meetings were discussed. Dave Durham was asked about what other Districts were thinking about or doing and he offered that most Districts that did not meet at least monthly had generally gone dormant. Unless they continued regular meetings it seems interest waned on conducting District business. Given that President Erro had a monthly contact process and the Board still did not always have a quorum it was suggested a phone call-in be explored as another possibility. No action was taken and the item would be tabled for further discussion until after the current election period (November 2009) was over since not all the sitting Directors had received re-appointment through the Board of Supervisors. We donít yet know if anyone submitted their name and would be posted for election.

Under ìmanager reportsî, the Manager discussed the new signed contract with DWR to conduct ìdrainage managementî activities. The Task Orders believed to be still active include: Red Rock Ranch drainage management testing (several projects), Argentine mesquite production (Peter Felker et al), agroforestry promotion (Vashek and Clarence), Tulare Lake Drainage District pond management for habitat, UCLA RO testing and EM38 salt profiling with Fresno State. A new ìtask orderî under the renewed contract was presented by DWR. Ken Johnson discussed the need to hire Jim Cooper as Red Rock technical consultant since the State no longer hires ìretired annuitantsî due to the fiscal crisis. Jim will act as a private consultant to implement several of the Red Rock Ranch experiments including the ìshrimpî project, drainage water chemical pre-treatment and a new solar evaporator design for capturing concentrated brine and then developing ìproductsî from the joint venture with Westlands and Ag Water ñ New Sky Company. Manager Green signed the new task order. The shrimp project has an additional feature of trying to produce ìoilî as well as  the market for fish food. The Manager also mentioned the possibility of a new Bureau of Reclamation grant for habitat restoration using the template developed by Ken Lair of HT Harvey. Dan Schara mentioned the implementation process for such a grant would have to include going through the new land use application process adopted by Westlands if the property is owned by Westlands.

Under "partner reports" the following was presented.

Dan Schara of Westlands handed out a written report that is included and made a part of these minutes. Dan summarized several items including the aforementioned newly adopted land use application, review and approval process for Westlands ìownedî property.     In addition he discussed the likely water picture for next irrigation season; even if the water year is "very wet" the highest likely federal allocation to the District is 30 to 40% because of the limited pumping windows in the Delta. Numerous "power generation" proposals are under design and consideration in the District including on District land. Local energy generated could be used by the Lateral 6 and 7 pumping plants if water was available in Mendota Pool.

Dave Durham also handed out summary report that is a part of these minutes. Dave also presented the following. The new "conservation stewardship" program will use a point system to determine per acre payments. Applicants will not get credit for practices they are already doing. All final decisions on this program come from headquarters in Davis, the area offices just help rank the proposals. Regarding recent drought relief, both Kings River Conservation District and Westlands received substantial grants under the "ag water efficiency program".  Both still have waiting lists for high-efficiency application equipment such as drip, micro-spray and LEPA center pivot.  Engine replacement for farm diesel equipment will likely continue next year. The new "farm bill" is still undergoing growing pains but will likely settle down next year.

Ken Johnson handed out a DWR written report that is attached and a part of these minutes.
He summarized some of the items including that the wind turbine at Red Rock seems to be developing the most energy at the 120' elevation above ground. The new solar evaporator needs to be above ground so as to collect high TDS water in a trough to be routed to the Ag Water: New Sky processes for developing products.

Clarence Finch reported on a visit to review the conditions of agroforestry sites at various farm locations and tree types. He presented a photo album specifically showing the conditions of various Argentine mesquite and paulonia trees.
 
There were no further reports and the meeting was adjourned unanimously at 11:50 AM upon a motion by Director Diener, seconded by Director Brughelli.

Sargeant J. Green, Secretary-Manager