• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About

The Irrigation District’s Water Math

May 19, 2015 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Steve Knell, May 14, Oakdale Irrigation District Boardroom
Steve Knell, May 14, Oakdale Irrigation District Boardroom

Thursday, May 14, Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) General Manager Steve Knell told a group of local farmers he was more worried about OID’s financial situation than he was about the drought.  Knell said OID lost $7 million last year and would lose $10 million this year. “Those losses will be made up with water sales,” he added.

Knell is a staunch advocate of water sales, euphemistically known as “water transfers.” Over the past ten years, OID has sold nearly 400,000 acre feet of water outside the region.

Earlier this year, the district was on track to sell another $3.9 million worth of water to distant buyers. The sale was quashed by Oakdale farmer Louis Brichetto when Brichetto’s attorneys claimed the sale failed to address requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.

Brichetto said he is opposed to water sales outside the district on principle. “It doesn’t make sense to sell your greatest asset,” he said. “Water is a farmer’s greatest asset.”

Brichetto and others are among a growing group of farmers who think local irrigation rates are too low. On April 21, when OID Board members were discussing a surcharge for the $27 per acre irrigation rate, farmer Brian Lemons said the surcharge was far too little.

“A $6 surcharge is a laughable amount,” Lemons said. “It’s time for us water customers to pony up and pay what water is really worth, if we’re concerned about the longevity of the district.”

Farmers within the district would have to approve a rate increase, and apparently most prefer current rates, which are actually below the cost of delivery. When Trinitas Partners was annexed into the district in 2013, it agreed to buy water for $55 an acre foot―a far greater figure than senior members of the district had ever paid.

While that figure seemed ludicrously low to anyone who follows water rates throughout the state, it has given Trinitas leverage with OID management. Knell claims delivering water to Trinitas ahead of senior members of the district makes sense because it helps OID subsidize district farmers. “You’re getting your water for free,” he told district farmers last Thursday.

For many, this kind of water math looks like a shell and pea game. Angry farmers at last Thursday’s meeting claimed Knell and the OID had violated their trust when proposing to deliver water to newcomer Trinitas while cutting their own allotments.

Even the state’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) has become wary of OID’s claims about “surplus” water. Earlier in the year, the DWR sent a “Water Transfer White Paper” to OID warning it against overestimating water supplies so that it could sell water.

Though Steve Knell complained about the restrictions, imagine the scenario if OID had managed to proceed with this year’s sale. Had it not been for Louis Brichetto’s threat of a lawsuit, OID would have even less water and all those angry farmers would be even angrier.

While some OID farmers are still fighting to maintain their low water rates, others are realizing that as water becomes scarcer throughout the state, the price is rising exponentially. Even in their own district, newcomer Trinitas seems to be receiving favorable treatment solely because it has offered to pay more than senior members of the district.

Ordinarily, farmers are among the shrewdest businessmen anywhere. Today, too many in the Oakdale Irrigation District seem to have forgotten the old businessman’s adage that proclaims, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” As more of their water goes to the highest bidder, they may have to learn the hard way.

 

 

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Oakdale Irrigation District water sales, OID water sales, Steve Knell water sales

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

?This is where society fails to have an answer?: Poll reveals Bay Area residents? frustration with street homelessness
“This is where society fails to have an answer”: Poll reveals Bay Area residents? frustration with street homelessness
Data includes support for possible measures, including a court system with the power to order people into mental health treatment.
www.mercurynews.com
?Monster Fracks? Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
“Monster Fracks” Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
A Times analysis shows that increasingly complex oil and gas wells now require astonishing volumes of water to fracture the bedrock and release fossil fuels, threatening America’s fragile aquifers.
www.nytimes.com
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has 'paralyzed' California cities
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has ‘paralyzed’ California cities
The Democratic governor’s intervention lays down a mark in a legal dispute with potentially profound implications for one of California’s most pressing issues.
www.politico.com
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
www.propublica.org
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How bad is hunger in California? A lot depends on your access to food aid, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic but now is being reduced.
calmatters.org
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento County had nearly 9,300 homeless people in 2022, based on data from the annual Point in Time count. That was up 67% from 2019. Roughly three-quarters of the county’s homeless population….
www.mercurynews.com
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
After decades of minimal action, Congress passed the largest and most comprehensive piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. Will we make the most of this opportunity?
www.audubon.org
How the fentanyl crisis' fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
How the fentanyl crisis’ fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
The epidemic’s staggering scale and infiltration of communities is laid bare in a new study.
www.bbc.com
Can licensed tent villages ease California's homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Can licensed tent villages ease California’s homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Taking people off the street and into tents is a new twist on homeless shelter being explored by the San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy in two tent villages operating in Los Angeles and Culver City.
www.latimes.com
Mississippi has problems, but it's handling homelessness better than L.A.
Mississippi has problems, but it’s handling homelessness better than L.A.
The public tends to blame homelessness on poverty, drug use, crime or even warm weather. But other cities don’t have L.A. levels of street homelessness because they have more available housing.
www.latimes.com
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
The demonstrators raised “Heil Hitler” salutes and waved flags with swastikas.
www.thedailybeast.com
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom's CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom’s CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Gov. Gavin Newsom?s experiment to push Californians with mental illness off the streets and into treatment, CARE Court, starts soon.
calmatters.org

Find us on Facebook

pp
The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design