Friant Water Authority responds to City of Fresno’s suit
The Friant Water Authority has responded to a decision to be sued by the City of Fresno, stating it won’t specifically address the litigation, but adding it has equitably tried to have all those who are served by the Friant-kern Canal to pay for their fair share of repairs to the canal. The authority oversees the canal.
On Thursday the Fresno City Council voted to sue the Friant Water Authority for declaratory relief to basically prevent the authority from trying to charge the city unfairly to help pay for the repairs of the Friantkern Canal.
In its statement, FWA did say the City of Fresno’s obligation to help pay for repairs of the canal is $2.8 million, a small portion of the $500 million it will take to complete all the repairs needed for the canal. Of that share, FWA noted the City of Fresno has already paid $500,000 over the past several years.
“Still, additional efforts are being by most FWA Directors and all FWA staff to continue to pursue other funding sources,” FWA stated.
“All Friant Division contractors who rely on the Friant-kern Canal are affected by capacity restrictions and are responsible for a share of the costs of the repairs. FWA is responsible for determining an equitable allocation of the costs for the repairs among the Friant contractors and in 2019 finalized the allocation, including for the City of Fresno.
“FWA has been working with the City of Fresno for almost a year attempting to address the city’s recent opposition to FWA’S final allocation of costs for the project.”
FWA added part of the dispute resolution process will involved the Bureau of Reclamation “making a final determination as to whether FWA has acted appropriately within its authority in allocating the costs among the Friant contractors.”
FWA added the determination is expected in the next couple of weeks. “Until then, and until FWA has the opportunity to review the legal complaint made by the City of Fresno, FWA will have no comment on the specifics of the litigation.”
FWA stated it’s important to note through cooperative efforts with federal, state and local agencies it has an overall finance plan that includes multiple financial partners in addition to Friant contractors.
“In early 2017, it was discovered that the Friant-kern Canal’s carrying capacity and its ability to deliver water to Friant contractors was significantly impaired due to land subsidence,” FWA stated.
This subsidence decreases the level of the canal and has decreased the canal’s ability to de
liver water by as much as an estimated 60 percent has been caused by the overpumping of groundwater. City of Fresno City Manager Thomas Esqueda noted that fact during Thursday’s Fresno City Council meeting in which the council voted to sue FWA.
“No action taken by the city of Fresno caused the damage to the Friantkern Canal,” Esqueda was quoted in the Fresno Bee. “Nothing we ever did caused that. The request by Friant to fund the repairs for the damages that weren’t caused by the city provides no benefit to the city.”
FWA’S financing plan for repairs to the canal includes a settlement reached with the Easter
Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency in which the agency has agreed to pay a minimum of $125 million for the repairs.
Funding from that settlement along with a combination of federal, state and local funds will be used to fund the repairs of a 33-mile stretch of the canal from between Lindsay and Strathmore to north Kern County which are set to begin.