Fresno City Council votes to drop lawsuit against FWA
The Fresno City Council fought the Friant Water Authority and the Bureau of Reclamation and the FWA and Bureau of Reclamation won.
The Fresno City Council voted Thursday to drop its lawsuit against Friant Water Authority. The council voted 5-1 to drop the suit. Councilmember Garry Bredefeld voted no, thus voting for continuing litigation.
Five days after the council voted in favor of the suit, attorneys filed the suit on behalf of the City of Fresno in Fresno Superior Court. The City of Fresno was seeking “declaratory relief,” essentially asking not to be unfairly on the hook for costs to repair the Friant-kern Canal.
But the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the Friant-kern Canal, ruled the City of Fresno must pay its share of the repairs for the canal. So basically the federal government ruled against the City of Fresno thus forcing the council’s hand to drop the lawsuit. FWA, which oversees the canal, sought recourse through the Bureau of Reclamation.
In filing its lawsuit, the City of Fresno stated it shouldn’t be responsible for paying for repairs for damage to the canal caused by Tulare County growers overpumping groudwater. That has caused subsidence to the canal, basically decreasing the level of the canal.
FWA is seeking anywhere from $2.5 million to $2.8 million from the City of Fresno to help with the repairs of the canal. In a statement responding the the lawsuit, FWA stated the City of Fresno’s obligation for repairs to the canal was $2.8 million, a small share of the total cost of the cost to repair the canal, which FWA estimates to be $500 million.
Earlier this week the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns Millerton Lake and the Friant-kern Canal, issued a letter to the City of Fresno, stating the city’s water contract required it to pay for operations and maintenance of the canal. The Fresno City Council decided litigation wasn’t worth it as the cost of the litigation would likely be more than what FWA is seeking from the city.
And any nonpayments to the FWA could jeopardize the City of Fresno’s water supply. The City of Fresno is one of the contractors who’s a member of the FWA.
FWA based its position that “operations, maintenance and replacement” of the canal was needed and since the City of Fresno is under a water contract with the federal government that administers the canal, it’s legally obligated to pay its share.
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.
Bureau of Reclamation region director Ernest Conant sided with FWA on that issue. “The capacity correction project costs for which FWA is responsible are prop
erly classified as operation, maintenance and repairs,” Conant writes in his letter.
Conant also partially disputed the argument by the City of Fresno it shouldn’t be charged for repairs to damage caused by the overpumping of groudwater. Conant also stated in his letter the repairs were needed also in part due to “faulty original construction.”
But Conant did say the repairs are for “restoring the canal’s capacity clost to the historic conveyance levels that existed prior to 2014 and “are results of subsidence impacts and not correcting a construction defect.”
Due to the subsidence the canal’s conveyance ability, the ability to deliver water, has decreased by as much as 60 percent.
Conant also dealt with the issue if Fresno’s share was fair. Conant stated FWA’S method of allocating operations, maintenanc and repair costs has never been disputed.
He wrote FWA uses “a methodology that is based in part on the level of service provided or expceted to be provided through water deliveries to a given contractor.” He added that’s “an approach currently applied by other contractors in the Central Valley Contract.”
Repairs to a 33-mile stretch of the canal from between Lindsay and Strathmore to north Kern County are set to begin. FWA has approved a financing plan to fund the repairs which includes federal and state funding and funding from local contractors.
Also included is at least $125 million from the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency in a settlement reached between the agency and FWA to pay for damage caused by the overpumping of groundwater.