Los Banos Rotary Club History
T. C. Mott Tells Of West Side's Water Supply

Prefacing his talk with the declaration that the San Joaquin Canal Co. has been anything but negligent in projecting and furthering the vital supply of irrigation water for west side lands. T. C. Mott, manager and engineer for the local utility and for the local mutual canal companies, Tuesday noon gave members of the Rotary Club a brief resume of the history of irrigation in this area, together with an analysis of water conditions as they are today, and prospects for the future.

First, he said, there is an obvious lack of understanding of the meaning of "water rights," and the difference between water rights as such and the yield of such water rights on the basis of quantity and priority.

Mott traced the history of the canal company's water rights back to 1906, when Henry Miller, in one of his last major accomplishments, signed the memorable Eastwood Contract. The contract permitted Eastwood, his successors or assigns, to develop power resources on the upper San Joaquin river watershed, and provided for storage and release of impounded water down the river in accordance with specified schedules stipulated by Miller to provide irrigation water as needed through the summer months. Miller's wisdom in the negotiation of this contract has proven the foundation from which the canal companies have through the years continually bettered their position to receive and utilize the water of the San Joaquin.

In 1909, Eastwood assigned his rights for a reservoir in Crane Valley to the San Joaquin Power Co., and the company constructed the dam and power facilities at Bass Lake, with a reservoir capacity of 45,000 ac,-ft. this water, released during the summer when the natural flow of the river has almost ceased, added to the river's yield in exact proportion and lengthened considerably the irrigation reason in this area.

At approximately the same time Eastwood sold his rights on the main river to Southern California Edison Co. Huntington Lake, the first of the three present reservoirs, was constructed in 1917, with a capacity of 88,000 ac.-ft. the later construction of Shaver reservoir, 135,000 ac.-ft., and Florence Lake, 65,000 ac.-ft., boosted these average annual yields to 774,300 ac.-ft. and for the first time gave farmers of this area some assurance of irrigation water throughout the entire growing season.

This flow schedule agreement was submitted to the old State Railroad Commission on behalf of the San Joaquin Canal Co. and to the directors of the three mutual canal companies for approval. After approval by these bodies the agreement became the law as between the crop land companies, thus eliminating any possible chance of a disagreement in the future.
The rights of the four crop canal companies as defined by this flow schedule is the basis upon which the Bureau of Reclamation is now releasing water to these companies.

As a sidelight to the water itself, Mott stated the voluntary action of Miller & Lux in subordinating its own water rights to those of the cropland canal companies resulted in a large loss to Miller & Lux when the grasslands water rights were later sold to the government, as the value of the grass rights were reduced in direct proportion to the amount of water thus taken from the grass rights by the crop rights.

Commenting on the Exchange Agreement between the canal companies and the government, whereby the local canal companies were to receive a supplemental supply of water from the Sacramento river through the Delta-Mendota Canal in place of water from the San Joaquin river, Mott said the agreement in no way jeopardizes the water rights of water users within the local canal systems. Every contract that is negotiated between the government and water users along the Friant-Kern and Madera canals, he said, contains a clause stating that the quantity of such water is subject at all times to fulfillment of this area's full flow entitlement, and in event of failure of the Delta-Mendota Canal water must be released down the river from Friant to make up such deficiency.

When the exchange agreement goes into effect, water deliveries will be made under Schedule E. which contains a minimum guarantee clause that provides a 72 per cent minimum flow guarantee regardless of flow in the San Joaquin river. The effect of this schedule. Mott said, is to guarantee, for all time, a sufficient and satisfactory quantity of irrigation water to this area. Had the Schedule E flow been in effect through the period of years 1910 to 1948 inclusive the average annual yield would have been 854,000 ac.-ft. In 1924 – the year the canals stopped flowing the latter part of June – Schedule E would have provided an additional 328,900 ac.-ft. for this area.

Mott also told of the changing irrigation requirements for this area, explaining that it was impossible to foresee such changed need at the time the Schedule I table was adopted and stated that even if it had been foreseen the Railroad Commission would have refused approval of any schedule which would have anticipated such need.

In view of these changed conditions, he said, the San Joaquin and other canal companies have proposed to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation a new flow schedule to replace Schedule I. such schedule would not provide an increased average annual yield, but would re-arrange the monthly deliveries to provide a greater flow through the critical months of July, August and September—the three months the supply of water under Schedule I is now deficient Negotiations for the requested revision are now progressing satisfactorily, and Mott said he is confident a satisfactory agreement will be reached soon between the canal companies and the Bureau.

Additional benefits for the local area lies in the probability that more power reservoirs will be constructed on the upper San Joaquin river. Such additional storage would materially boost the local area's entitlement under the exchange agreement, and would be beneficial to the government in that it would enable it to stock pile an additional 250,000 ac.-ft. of water annually for use as needed. Thus such water would be reclassified from Class 2 to Class I and result in an increased sale price of $2.00 an ac.-ft. or a total of $500,000 annually.

Concluding, Mott declared with emphasis that recent the canal company has been negligent in its protection and interest to the ranchers of this area are completely in error; that the exchange contract with the government has provided benefits far above what would otherwise have been possible; and that the future water supply for this area will be further improved and benefitted through the continued interest and guidance of the company.

June 20, 1950

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