WESTSIDE RESOURCE CONSERVATION DISTRICT
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Draft Meeting Minutes
November 19, 2009


 Call to Order:

President Phil Erro called the meeting to order at 10:10 AM. The following people attended:
    Directors: President Erro, Gene Brughelli, Jorgen Clausen, Linda Anderson, Rick Blankenship,
             and John Diener.
    Others:         Ken Johnson, Roberta Howe, and Joe Tapia of CA Dept. of Water Resources; and
             Rod Stiefvater, Pleasant Valley Water District

Agenda and Minutes

A quorum was present, and Rick Blankenship moved we adopt the agenda as written. Jorgen Clausen seconded the motion, and the Directors voted to approve the agenda. Jorgen Clausen moved we accept the October 15, 2009 minutes as amended by President Erro.  In the second to last sentence of the first paragraph on the second page of the minutes, President Erro said to strike the words “Dave Wood example of shutting down when demands are high for air conditioning.” and insert “Double D Farms produce cooler shutting down during PG&E's peak power demand period.” Gene Brughelli seconded the motion to accept the October 15th minutes as amended, and the Directors approved the amended minutes.

Public Comments:

There were no public comments.

Reports:

President Erro presented the financial audit of the Westside Resource Conservation District for the   2009 fiscal year prepared by Bryant Jolly, CPA. It was noted that the Westside RCD started the 2009 fiscal year on July 1, 2008 with a deficit of ($23,798) and ended the fiscal year on June 30, 2009 with a positive balance of $15,066. It was also pointed out that the Bureau of Reclamation and Bureau of Land Management did not fund projects implemented by the Westside RCD in fiscal 2009. John Diener said the $7,868 for plant materials shown in the balance sheet-government funds was from the Eucalyptus Improvement Association based in Northern California. John Diener moved we accept the audit as presented, and Gene Brughelli seconded the motion. The motion carried.

Regarding the current financial status of the Westside RCD Director Clausen stated that the District had recently received a total of $45,769.52 from Westlands Water District and the CA Dept. of Water Resources and that it could pay invoices totaling over $43,000. Director Clausen moved that we pay the bills prepared for the board by Secretary-Manager Green. Director Brughelli seconded the motion, and the directors approved paying the bills.

President Erro reported that Dick Moss, former Manager of the Friant Water Users Association, spoke at the recent San Joaquin Valley Resource Conservation and Development Council meeting and had said that rigorous pumping of new water bearing strata at new well depths collapses those strata, causing subsidence. He also said the San Joaquin Valley would need imports of Northern California water in the future. President Erro announced that the December Westside RCD meeting would be on Wednesday, December 16th at the UC West Side Field Station. He said Kerry Arroues will speak on the impact of well water on soil salinity and that Ron Smith of Ag Water New Sky will speak on how his firm can clean up 5,000 TDS water for $350 per acrefoot. President Erro said he had signed the agreement with the Western Shasta RCD to transfer $3,543.94 to the Westside RCD to grow eucalyptus trees to distribute to farmers and ranchers. He then explained the various kinds of conference call phone devices that are available and the options conference call carriers offer. After some discussion, it was decided not to try to have conference calls at WRCD meetings. Directors thought that a phone with a speaker capability would suffice so long as only one person wanted to call into our meetings to both talk and listen. President Erro said he would look into Fresno County's records of the status of the directors of the Westside RCD. According to Fresno County only two directors are properly appointed.

Regarding drainage management, Dept. of Water Resources engineer Ken Johnson said the heat exchange device designed by Envir-Solo to heat saline drain water to evaporate it had a leaky PVC manifold. Low grade heat in the form of hot water flows through drip hose to heat saline flowing over the hose to evaporate the water from the brine. The source of the heat for the device is a propane burner now, but later a parabolic trough will concentrate solar heat to heat the water for the heat exchanger. In response to the question of how to drain the soil profile of saline drain water when the depth of that water is going down, Ken said extraction wells perforated near the surface of the farmland could be used. Drainage tiling buried at a depth of 4' becomes ineffective if the drain water is 6' below the surface; similarly, if it is buried at 6', it becomes ineffective when the drain water sinks below that level. The drain water is still confined by an impermeable layer at a lower depth such as 10' below the surface but goes down as less water from up-grade flows into the tiled field. There are physical and cost limits to how deep perforated drainage pipe and gravel can be placed. An extraction well perforated from 4' to 10' below ground, for example, would solve this problem.

Concerning watershed management, the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority is re-submitting its Integrated Regional Water Management Plan to include the Panoche-Silver Creek and Arroyo Pasajero stream groups. This action should alleviate the Dept. of Water Resources-imposed California Environmental Quality Act permitting requirements for doing watershed conservation projects on rangeland in Westside RC District. It also should clear the way for the Westside RCD to apply for Proposition 84 and Proposition 50 grant funds. 

The Westside RCD will negotiate with the Bureau of Reclamation to obtain grant funding of upland habitat restoration. Prospects of getting some quantity of those funds are good. The WRCD will have to apply to the Westlands Water District to use retired land for upland habitat restoration.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:40 AM after approval of a motion to adjourn by Director Diener and seconded by Director Clausen.g.  The District Secretary can be telephoned at 559.230.9050.