• 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

Will MID Fail on Water?

February 16, 2015 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

MID Directors Mensinger, Wenger, and Byrd
MID Directors Mensinger, Wenger, and Byrd

“We’re in a new world here,” said John Mensinger during last Tuesday’s Water Workshop in the Modesto Irrigation District’s (MID) boardroom. And while many in the audience seemed to agree, his fellow directors apparently weren’t listening.

The subject was a modest proposal by MID staff to increase water rates to $29.25 an acre foot by 2017. People in the know about today’s water world might think $29.25 is a misprint, and they’d have every reason to believe so.

In Westlands Water District, those who could get irrigation water paid between $800 and $1100 an acre foot last year. The city of San Francisco currently pays around $1300 an acre foot and is expecting a substantial increase in the next couple of years. Down south, the city of San Diego recently negotiated with a desalination plant for water at $2000 an acre foot.

Abundant water has always been the rule in and around Stanislaus County. Even the recent drought hasn’t brought a halt to an unprecedented increased in irrigated acreage as the almond boom fosters a burgeoning forest almost daily.

Given the increased demand, it would seem to follow the price of water would rise. And it has risen— everywhere but locally. Despite compelling reasons, MID Directors seem unwilling to deal with today’s water realities. At Tuesday’s meeting, only Mensinger supported staff proposals for modest rate increases.

Consider this: Current rates don’t begin to pay for the cost of delivering MID irrigation water. In part due to stories in the Modesto Bee, MID electric customers believe they are subsidizing local farmers to the tunes of millions of dollars. MID Directors say this isn’t so, but are unable to offer hard data in support of their claims.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Director Larry Byrd said that MID workers were struggling with outdated equipment and reduced manpower:

“Our water department is down to the bare bones,” he said. “We don’t have the revenues.”

But then he went on to say that public concern about low water rates was unjustified and the result of the complaints of “three or four individuals.”

Fellow board member Jake Wenger pointed out that electric rates had gone up because of “bad management” during the past administration. Wenger’s partially correct, but that’s a separate issue altogether from irrigation rates. It also doesn’t address Byrd’s point about a “bare bones” water department.

Director Paul Campbell seemed content to blame upcoming state requirements for increases in unimpaired flows for any and all problems faced by the district. Campbell’s rant has become the default position of anyone unwilling to face the realities of a new water world, where population growth, climate change, and an unprecedented shift in agriculture to permanent crops have stressed resources beyond sustainability.

When local leaders complain about the state’s “water grab” and bemoan the loss of some of their water rights, they ignore current realities. When over 80 percent of Tuolumne River water is diverted away from Delta farmers and fisheries, and when local water prices are in the lower two digits, it’s not unreasonable to conclude local water users have been making too much of a good thing.

“I think it’s reasonable to listen to staff,” said John Mensinger last Tuesday.

He might have added that railing against the state and clinging to water policies of the distant past won’t win much support from a public that has become disenchanted with the status quo. MID Directors still have a chance to listen and learn from last week’s Water Workshop. Let’s hope they’re willing.

 

Filed Under: Environment, Featured Tagged With: Modesto Irrigation District water rates

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

?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
Pope says 'backward' U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
Pope says ‘backward’ U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church. He says they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.
apnews.com

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