Oakdale Irrigation District rejects petition but ups farmers’ water shares

The drought may be worsening, but water prospects for Oakdale-area farmers keep getting better.

On Tuesday, Oakdale Irrigation District leaders unanimously agreed to increase established customers’ 2015 allotment to 40 inches per parcel. That’s higher than any water company in the region, and far more than caps set this year for the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, respectively 16 and 18-20 inches. OID’s partner on the Stanislaus River, the South San Joaquin Irrigation District, adopted a 36-inch cap.

The OID board also upheld 10-inch deliveries to Trinitas Partners, declining to reconsider an April 21 vote despite protests from some customers.

The same 3-1 April vote, with board member Frank Clark dissenting, had fixed shares for established customers at 30 inches. Those customers, referred to as Tier 1, were told that their 52,000 acres could get an extra inch if Trinitas’ 7,234 acres and another company’s recently annexed 812 acres were turned away, but the board rejected protests and approved the Tier 2 deliveries.

Some late storms have combined with customers’ effective scrimping to warrant bumps to 36 inches with a vote in May, and to 40 inches with Tuesday’s action – far more than the 31 inches established customers might have received if the initial vote in April had gone their way.

“Everyone’s doing a good job out there,” board chairman Steve Webb said Tuesday.

General Manager Steve Knell said, “When you ask constituents to step up, they step up.”

Protesters had circulated petitions after the April vote, noting that OID in 2013 had told landowners they would not be affected by the annexation. The same terms were cited in OID’s pitch to the Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission, which rules on annexation requests.

Petitioners said this year’s Tier 2 allotments, although now a quarter the amount being provided to Tier 1, would shift the expense of groundwater pumping for additional water from the almond barons to OID’s longtime customers.

“You’ve lost the ability to govern effectively when people don’t trust you,” customer Linda Santos said at Tuesday’s meeting.

A staff report prepared for Tuesday’s meeting says it’s better that extra pumping be spread among OID’s entire 60,000 acres rather than forcing Trinitas to pump a like amount from its aquifer. That “could generate a substantial cone of depression,” the report says, describing the phenomenon that can suck dry neighboring wells; Trinitas’ region between Oakdale and Knights Ferry “is an area already troubled by shallow wells going dry,” the report says.

Also, Tier 2 customers pay more than Tier 1 – $55 per acre, compared to $27, meaning OID would lose $370,000 by canceling Trinitas deliveries. And, OID’s 2012 promises to landowners were among nonbinding proposed terms that legally were changed by the time the district finalized its contract with Trinitas a few months later, the report said.

Lastly, it was deemed advantageous for OID to keep water in the area rather than selling more to wealthy out-of-county buyers, as the district had for a decade, earning profits of more than $35 million. Using more water locally could help justify the district’s claim on the Stanislaus, officials reasoned.

When it came time to vote Tuesday on petition demands, no board member offered a motion and the matter ended with no discussion.

Moments later, the board voted 4-0 to increase Tier 1 allotments to 40 inches while keeping Tier 2 shares at 10 inches. Board member Al Bairos was absent.

This story was originally published June 2, 2015 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Oakdale Irrigation District rejects petition but ups farmers’ water shares."