History

Fresno Irrigation District was formed in 1920 under the California Irrigation Districts Act, as the successor to the privately owned Fresno Canal and Land Company. The District purchased all of the rights and property of the company for the sum of $1,750,000.
The assets of the company consisted of over 600 miles of canals and distribution works which were constructed between the years 1850 and 1880, as well as the extensive water rights on Kings River.

The District, which now comprises some 245,000 acres, lies entirely within Fresno County and includes the rapidly growing Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area. The District now operates approximately 800 miles of canals and pipelines. Total irrigated area exceeds 150,000 acres, although this number has been decreasing in recent years as a result of urban expansion.

A significant improvement in the control and management of the waters of Kings River occurred with the completion of the Pine Flat Dam project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1954. Although built primarily as a flood control project, the Dam provides significant water conservation stemming from the storage and regulation of irrigation water by the 28 water right entities on Kings River including Fresno Irrigation District. The District is contracted for 11.9% of the 1,000,000 acre-foot capacity of the Pine Flat Reservoir. While the District is entitled to approximately 26% of the average runoff of Kings River, much of its entitlement occurs at times when it can be used directly for irrigation of crops without the need for regulation at Pine Flat.

In a normal year, the District diverts approximately 500,000 acre-feet of water and delivers most of that to agricultural users, although an increasing share of the District's water supply is used for groundwater recharge in the urban area.

In addition to its entitlement from Kings River, the District and the City of Fresno have signed contracts to purchase up to 135,000 acre-feet annually from the Friant Division of the Central Valley Project.

Historically, excess water applied by the by the farmers has percolated beyond the root zone and recharged the extensive aquifer underlying the Fresno Irrigation District. Between 85% and 90% of the groundwater supply can be attributed to water imported and distributed by the District.

However, the conversion of agricultural lands to high-density urban uses in the expanding Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area has reduced the capacity to utilize surface water because all municipal and industrial water is obtained by pumping groundwater. A local overdraft has developed in and around the urban area, and this situation has been exacerbated by the drought of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The District has combined forces with the City of Fresno, the City of Clovis, the County of Fresno, and the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District in a cooperative effort to develop and implement a comprehensive surface and groundwater management program. The main thrust of the program involves using flood control basins for recharge during the summer when the basins are not needed to control urban storm runoff. This program also contains elements designed to protect the quality of groundwater in the area.

The District is also expanding and improving its distribution system to deliver water to agricultural lands that have not received surface water in the past, but have instead obtained water for crops from groundwater pumping.

The District is governed by a board of five directors. Each director represents a separate geographical division of the District and is elected to a term of four years by the qualified voters within the division. Regular board meetings are held twice a month.

The budget is adopted by the Board in September for the following calendar year. The principal source of the District's income is water user fees for services provided by the District. There is no direct charge for the purchase of water. As such, the income of the District remains relatively stable despite fluctuations in the availability of water.

Day-to-day operations of the District are the responsibility of the General Manager acting through the following described four departments:

The District has a normal complement of about 81 full-time employees, an annual operating budget of approximately $6,300,000, and an annual capital budget of about $700,000.

1999 proved to be an excellent year for water in this area. In spite of low winter rainfall, FID delivered a total of approximately 545,500 acre-feet, as compared to 500,000 acre-feet in a normal year and 330,000 acre-feet in some of the recent dry years.

Landowners within the District enjoy water costs of approximately $9 per acre foot, which is among the cheapest in the state.

FID management is not resting on its laurels.

FID management also is actively involved in issues of environmental concerns and water supplies for other water agencies. The focus of these efforts is to address the concerns and challenges faced in our society while providing a reliable and affordable water supply for the cities and farmland within the District.

"Serving today . . .
. . . protecting tomorrow."

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