Friant Water Authority Names Jason Phillips As CEO

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ERIC BORBA, CHAIR, FRIANT WATER AUTHORITY

Friant Water Authority Board of Directors has selected Jason Phillips to be their first Chief Executive Officer.

“This is a critical time for Jason Phillips to become Friant’s first Chief Executive Officer,” said Friant Chairman Eric Borba. “We need a leader who will thrive in the highly dynamic environment of California water. Jason’s experience with the Bureau of Reclamation and his vision, strategy and track record is exactly what Friant needs. He has a proven ability to inspire, energize, and connect with employees, partners, customers and leaders.

Jason joined the Bureau of Reclamation in 2001 and moved quickly through the Bureau’s ranks. He most recently served as the Bureau’s Deputy Regional Director of the Mid-Pacific Region. He has helped lead and execute many of the Bureau’s programs, including the Klamath Project, the San Joaquin River Restoration Program, the Upper San Joaquin River Basin Storage Investigation, and the San Luis Drainage Feature Re-evaluation. “I am looking forward to joining the Friant Water Authority where I will be representing great people and working with an excellent team,” said Phillips. “Family farms, businesses, and cities depend on a reliable water supply from Friant for their livelihood. Unfortunately, they have been severely impacted by the lack of water in recent years. I will be committed and focused on taking strategic action and forming key partnerships necessary to improve short and long-term water supply reliability. The confidence the Board has in my ability to succeed in this role means a lot to me and will be important to our overall success.”

“Jason is clearly the leader for Friant’s future, and he has the unanimous support of the Board of Directors,” said Eric Borba, Board Chair. “We initiated the formal CEO process several months ago, searching internally and externally to find the best leader for our membership and staff. With Jason taking the role of CEO, the Board is very confident the Friant Water Authority will have the leadership necessary to improve and protect our water supplies.”

The Authority operates and maintains the Friant-Kern Canal, a conveyance feature of the Central Valley Project. The Authority consists of 14 water purveyors. The Friant Service area includes approximately one million acres and 15,000 mostly small family farms on the east side of the southern San Joaquin Valley (Merced. Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and Kern counties). Friant Division water supplies are also relied upon by several cities and towns, including the City of Fresno, as a major portion of their municipal and industrial water supplies.

Phillips received a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering at Portland State University. Before joining the Bureau of Reclamation, he worked as a Civil Engineer and Project Manager for the Army Corps of Engineers for both the Sacramento and Portland Districts. Jason currently lives in Roseville, California with his wife and three children ages 16, 14, and 12.

Water Bond Easily Wins Voters’ Nod

Battle Begins To Keep Funding Steered Toward Intended Purposes

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After a decade of effort, California has produced a voter-embraced water bond that will result in real water development. Now, however, what may be the hardest work is just starting.
Voters on November 4 gave broad approval to Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond that this year was re-crafted with nearly unanimous bipartisan Legislative support.
“This is the first water bond in 40 years that will actually produce real water,” said Friant Water Authority Assistant General Manager Mario Santoyo, Executive Director of the California Latino Water Coalition. “Now that we’ve passed the water bond, we need to make sure its funds get to the intended recipients.”
During a news conference November 6 at the Fresno Irrigation District’s campus, Santoyo added, “It’s a major step forward but not the last step forward.”
Clovis City Council member Jose Flores, another Latino Water Coalition member, cautioned the Legislature to “remember that the voters have spoken, that we need more storage.”

OPPOSING VOICES

Already, Santoyo said, ideas are beginning to be voiced around the state on how to spend the bond’s funding. “Some of what we’re hearing isn’t what was just approved,” Santoyo said.
Particularly vulnerable is the bond’s $2.7 billion in funding for new surface water storage development. Even as the Fresno news conference was taking place, press reports were reporting comments suggesting those funds might be better spent on other projects than new reservoirs such as Temperance Flat northeast of Fresno.
As an example, the Associated Press reported Jay Ziegler of the Nature Conservancy as saying he expects many new ideas to emerge during discussions among state officials and a variety of special interests, including environmentalists.
“We’re hoping to have a genuine dialogue,” he said. “We don’t really know today what the right project mix is and how to optimize the system.”
Lester Snow, California Water Foundation Executive Director, was quoted as saying, “Now that we have the money, the challenge begins of expeditious and effective implementation of the bond.”
More assertive was Adam Scow of Food and Water Watch. He was among those telling Capital Press that they plan to battle politically for spending on what they term more “sustainable” projects, including large-scale recycling, storm water capture, groundwater cleanup and technologies lead to less imported water reliance.

‘WE’LL FIGHT THE DAMS’

“We’ll fight the dams, we’ll fight the tunnels, we’ll fight public money being used for additional water transfers,” said Scow. “The battle just continues to make sure the funds are in the public interest.”
The “tunnels” Scow mentioned are the proposed twin bores under and through the Delta to convey north state water to pumping plants near Tracy. That proposal and other parts of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan favored by Governor Brown were intentionally left out of Proposition 1.
Temperance Flat Reservoir, which would be located in the upper end of Millerton Lake, would add 1.26 million acre-feet of San Joaquin River storage.
It is squarely in the sights of water storage opponents. So are the proposed Sites Reservoir and enlargement of Lake Shasta and Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Northern California.