Fresno City Council votes to sue water agency over costs to repair Friant-Kern Canal
The Fresno City Council voted Thursday to sue the Friant Water Authority for declaratory relief to protect city ratepayers for paying the price for damage to the Friant-Kern Canal allegedly caused by Tulare County farmers.
The council voted in closed session, with Councilmembers Garry Bredefeld and Luis Chavez voting no and Councilmember Esmeralda Soria abstaining. City Attorney Doug Sloan announced the vote when the council returned to its meeting from lunch.
City Manager Thomas Esqueda explained that the Friant-Kern Canal failed near Porterville due to subsidence caused by the overpumping of ground water.
Esqueda said the water authority has entered into settlement agreements with those who did cause the damage by overpumping, but the water authority failed to settle for the full cost of the repairs. Friant approached the city of Fresno to backfill that cost, Esqueda said.
“No action taken by the city of Fresno caused the damage to the Friant-Kern Canal,” he said. “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.”
Esqueda pointed out that Fresno residents are behind on their water bills to the tune of $14 million, “more than the annual budget for most of the irrigation districts that are involved in this program,” he said.
City officials negotiated with the water authority to make payments for the repairs that would result in some benefit for the city, but negotiations never reached a resolution, Esqueda said.
The Friant Water Authority released a statement Friday saying it has been working since 2017 to reach an equitable split of the cost of repairs, adding:
“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. Part of the dispute resolution process involves (federal regulators) making a final determination as to whether FWA has acted appropriately and within its authority in allocating the costs among the Friant contractors. This 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.
“It’s important to note that through the cooperative efforts of our federal partners, the State of California, and local agencies, FWA has an overall finance plan that includes multiple financial partners in addition to Friant contractors. As such, the City of Fresno‘s obligation on this $500 million project is currently only $2.8 million, of which they have already paid more than $500,000 over the past several years. Still, additional efforts are being made by most FWA Directors and all FWA staff to continue to pursue other funding sources.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2021 at 2:13 PM.