Sometimes Larry Byrd must think the water gods are tormenting him. Byrd began serving on the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board of Directors early in 2012, just in time to become embroiled in a contentious dispute about selling water to San Francisco. Byrd took an unpopular stand against the sale, then prevailed in an outcome that left a lasting bitterness among almost all the participants in an argument that hasn’t […]
Modesto Irrigation District
Is the MID Taxing Customers Illegally with the “Falling Water Charge”?
Just when it looked like things couldn’t get any worse for the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), the heavens opened and delivered a world of trouble in falling water. In the arcane parlance of irrigation districts, “falling water” is water that falls from dams and spillways to provide electricity. Some districts impose on their customers a “Falling Water Charge.” The Falling Water Charge is an attempt to capture the value […]
River Wars, Episode II: The King of California and Imperial San Francisco
Marc Reisner’s, Cadillac Desert, is still the primary text for those who would understand water use in the arid American west, but the recent flap over the proposed sale of Tuolumne River water to the city of San Francisco by the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) is best illuminated by Mark Arax’s, The King of California, and Gray Brechin’s, Imperial San Francisco. In The King of California, Arax and Rick Wartzman […]