MID farmers will pay $9 more per acre for water. How does it compare with nearby areas?
A vote Tuesday added $9 per acre to the cost of water in the Modesto Irrigation District.
Its board decided 4-0, with Director Janice Keating absent, to adopt the increase for the irrigation season that just began.
The extra money will go to maintaining canals that deliver Tuolumne River water to about 3,100 farmers. Under state law, the proposal would have died if a majority of them filed protests at or before Tuesday’s hearing. Only 11 did so.
The new rate reflects the cost of service as detailed in a study adopted in November, said Gordon Enas, assistant general manager for water operations.
That study came amid long-running debate over whether MID electricity customers have been subsidizing the irrigation system. Power rates will rise nearly 10% over two years following a separate board vote in November.
The water rate structure has two parts: a flat fee per acre to cover general maintenance, and prices based on actual water used. The increase involves only the former, raising it from $44 to $53.
These volume charges are unchanged: $2 per acre-foot for the first two, $5 for the third acre-foot, $11.25 for the next half an acre-foot, and $40 per acre-foot beyond that. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre a foot deep.
The wet winter has allowed MID to ease way back on the drought cutbacks of the past two years. A farmer will pay $87.63 for four acre-feet in 2023, a typical volume.
The increase also applies to the river water feeding the treatment plant for the city of Modesto. This is only part of the bills for city residents, which also include maintenance of pipelines and other expenses.
MID’s farm rate remains in the middle compared with other irrigation districts in the San Joaquin Valley. A rundown of charges this year for four acre-feet:
- $70 in the Turlock Irrigation District, also on the Tuolumne
- $49.21 in the Oakdale Irrigation District, on the Stanislaus River
- $36 in the South San Joaquin Irrigation District, on the Stanislaus
- $200 in the Merced Irrigation District, on the Merced River
- $114.40 in the Central California Irrigation District. It stretches from Crows Landing to Mendota and has senior rights for water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
- $895.08 in the Westlands Water District, west of Fresno, the largest of the junior rights holders in the Delta system.
