MID candidates spar over selling water beyond district boundaries in a dry year
The challenger for a Modesto Irrigation District board seat criticized incumbent Larry Byrd for suggesting water sales beyond its boundaries in April.
Suzy Powell Roos said Tuesday that the idea was unwise given this year’s below-average runoff on the Tuolumne River.
Byrd said the sales would have been to farmers outside the MID boundaries but still within the Modesto-area groundwater basin. The canal water would allow them to rely less on their wells, thus boosting the groundwater supply, he said.
“We have to take care of our own irrigators first, but we can do that,” Byrd said at the April 28 meeting, conducted via Zoom because of COVID-19. The board did not pursue the sales, which had been conducted in recent wet years.
Byrd and Powell Roos are running in the Nov. 3 election to represent the area from La Grange to east Modesto.
The incumbent has served since 2011, following a 35-year career in MID water and power operations. He is a cattle rancher and almond grower in the Waterford area.
Powell Roos was a discus competitor in three Olympics. She now has a walnut farm and a nursery for walnut and almond trees east of Modesto.
MID aims to replenish aquifers
The April 28 discussion involved MID’s Groundwater Replenishment Program. It began in 2017, when runoff from rain and snow was a record 255% of average in the Tuolumne watershed. It continued to 2019, thanks to another above-average year and ample storage in Don Pedro Reservoir.
The program sold water over and above the regular annual allotment to MID farmers. They were encouraged to do an extra irrigation in the fall. Advocates say the aquifer benefits most from flood irrigation, rather than the sprinklers or drip systems used on many farms.
Non-MID farmers could get recharge water if they were within the Modesto-area groundwater basin. It is bounded on the south by the Tuolumne River, on the west by the San Joaquin River, on the north by the Stanislaus River, and on the east roughly by the Tuolumne County line.
The basin includes several cities and smaller irrigation districts along with MID. They are partners in complying with a 2014 state mandate for sustainable aquifers within a quarter-century.
Dry 2020 paused extra water sales
The MID staff recommended against the replenishment program this year because runoff was projected at only about 50% of average. Managers wanted to leave enough carryover water in Don Pedro to guard against another below-average winter.
The issue came up during a discussion Tuesday over whether Byrd let an unauthorized person be present during a Sept. 8 closed session. The board ended up dropping that matter after he explained that his grandson had only briefly leaned into the pickup cab where he had his Zoom connection.
Defenders of Byrd told the MID board Tuesday that he has served the district well, including efforts to replenish groundwater.
Roos Powell raised her concern about Byrd and the April discussion in an emailed statement to The Modesto Bee.
“If 2021 is a similarly dry year and MID faces the same issue next spring, and if I should be successful in my election, I would vote to put MID irrigators first, ahead of out-of-district irrigators,” she said. “While I support programs like the GRP that help recharge groundwater, district irrigators always should come first.”
