Several years ago, a San Benito newspaper reported that Dominic Giorgi “is a well driller” who aspires to be a full time rodeo clown. More recently, Giorgi reputedly has worked for Masellis Drilling while continuing to work rodeos as a part-time clown.
Giorgi is running against incumbent Director Robert “Bob” Frobose for a seat on the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board of Directors, where Frobose serves as President. One of Giorgi’s fliers reads, “MID needs to focus on us, not the special interests who make millions exporting our water out of the Modesto Basin.”
While Giorgi may be vague about the “special interests who make millions exporting our water out of the Modesto Basin,” he surely must know that his chief benefactor and by far biggest campaign donor is one of those “special interests.”
To date, east side farm developer Ty Angle has given Dominic Giorgi $30,000 in campaign contributions. Angle is by far the biggest exporter of “our water out of the Modesto Basin” because he is the lead pumper of groundwater on Stanislaus County’s east side, where he farms almonds.
It takes around 500 gallons to grow a pound of almonds. There are 325,851 gallons in one acre-foot of water. Ty Angle and the other groundwater-dependent farmers on Stanislaus County’s east side pump between 70,000 and 90,000 acre-feet of water out of the ground every year — the numbers vary according to rainfall.
Almonds are an export crop. Over 70% are sold overseas. In short, exporting almonds amounts to exporting water, or, as Dominic Giorgi would have it, it amounts to Ty Angle and his east side groundwater barons making “millions exporting our water out of the Modesto Basin.”
The Modesto Basin is in balance everywhere except on Stanislaus County’s east side, where Ty Angle, John Duarte and a few other farmers continue pumping groundwater. That groundwater leaves the Modesto Basin in the form of exported almonds.
Unlike the rest of the basin, where irrigation water is a significant part of the recharge process, there is little to no recharge on the east side, where farmers irrigate with driplines and micro-sprinklers.
In one of many great ironies generated by Stanislaus County’s east side groundwater-guzzlers, Dominic Giorgi’s flier attempts — feebly — to link Bob Frobose to exporting Stanislaus County water.
In fact, Bob Frobose may be Stanislaus County’s all-time acre-foot champion for keeping local water local. Long before he ran for office of any kind, Frobose successfully prevented Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) from selling surface water to distant buyers.
On his own time and acting strictly as a private citizen, it was Frobose who worked with CEQA Attorney Osha Meserve to block OID water sales, and it was Frobose who discovered OID water attorney Tim O’Laughlin was using the risky strategy of abandoning OID water rights to facilitate those sales, many of which went to Westlands Water District.
At the same time Bob Frobose was donating countless hours and energy to preventing OID sales to Westlands Water District, Ty Angle and Stanislaus County Supervisor Terry Withrow were partners in an almond orchard in that same water district, far outside the Modesto Basin.
Terry Withrow and east side almond farmer John Duarte are listed on Giorgi’s flier as major sponsors. The other name on the flier is Scott Masellis, who owns Masellis Drilling.
It’s very likely Dominic Giorgi himself is unaware of the errors and disinformation on his flier, which erroneously claims MID “jacked up our water rates by 20%” during Bob Frobose’s term on the Board. In fact, MID water rates have remained at $2 per acre-foot since well before Frobose was elected. The rates escalate as irrigation volume increases.
The City of Modesto buys water from MID at those same rates. Added costs for Modesto ratepayers are due to purification costs at the Modesto Water Treatment Plant. Recent water rate increases by the City of Modesto have been because of increased costs for maintenance and infrastructure, much of them due to rising prices for diesel fuel, which tend to have a domino effect on costs for most everything.
By all accounts, Dominic Giorgi is a good and honest man. His sponsors want Bob Frobose off the MID Board because Frobose has refused to sell them MID surface water at rates that amount to a public subsidy.
Giorgi himself, though doubtless sincere, has neither the experience nor the independence needed to clean up the waste and corruption at MID, where Ty Angle’s partner Larry Byrd voted to discontinue an investigation into his and Angle’s alleged misappropriation of water on the AB La Grange Ranch. The Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating Byrd’s self-serving vote.
Byrd, who has also donated to Dominic Giorgi, is currently under investigation by the Stanislaus County District Attorney for alleged water theft from MID. Earlier this year, Bob Frobose wrote to the California State Attorney General requesting he look into Byrd’s irrigation records.
No wonder Ty Angle, John Duarte, Larry Byrd and their groundwater-guzzling friends want Bob Frobose off the MID Board.