Westlands filed the action of Westlands Water District v. All Persons Interested In The Matter Of The Contract Between The United States And Westlands Water District Providing For Project Water Service, San Luis Unit And Delta Division And Facilities Repayment, Case No. 19CECG03887, in Fresno County Superior Court, on October 25, 2019. Through this action, Westlands seeks a judicial decree that the Contract Between the United States and Westlands Water District Providing for Project Water Service, San Luis Unit and Delta Division and Facilities Repayment (“Converted Contract”), as approved by the District’s Board through Resolution No. 119-19, in substantially the form presented to the Board, is valid under applicable California law. Links to the Converted Contract, additional information about the Exhibits to the Converted Contract (which include links to Exhibits A, B, and C and a template for Exhibit D), Resolution No. 119-19, the Summons, Complaint for Validation Judgment, Proposed Judgment may be accessed below.
Converted Contract
There will be four exhibits to the Converted Contract. Each exhibit is described in the Converted Contract. The Bureau of Reclamation has posted additional information regarding each of the four exhibits on its website.
Exhibit A
Exhibit A to the Converted Contract will be a map of the Westlands Water District service area. The service area will be the same as illustrated in the map, which is Exhibit A to Westlands Water District’s current contract. A PDF copy of the map may be accessed here.
Exhibit B
Exhibit B to the Converted Contract will be a listing of the rates and charges applicable to Westlands Water District upon execution of the Converted Contract. As is set forth in the Converted Contract, the rates and charges applicable to Westlands Water District will be updated annually. A template showing the rates and charges for 2007, prepared when Westlands Water District entered its first interim renewal contract, a PDF of the template may be accessed here.
Exhibit C
Exhibit C to the Converted Contract will be a document explaining the purpose and methodology of water needs assessments performed by the Bureau of Reclamation. This document will be the same as the Exhibit C to Westlands Water District’s current contract; a PDF is available here.
Exhibit D
Exhibit D to the Converted Contract will be a document showing the amount of Westlands Water District’s repayment obligation as of the date it enters the Converted Contract. A template developed during WIIN Act negotiations to show the type of information that will be included in Exhibit D may be accessed here in PDF format.
As further information concerning the data that will be included in Exhibit D, in 2018, the Bureau of Reclamation estimated that Westlands Water District’s then existing repayment obligation was approximately $362,079,612. A PDF copy of the estimate in Exhibit D may be accessed here. Westlands anticipates that the total amount of its repayment obligation that will be included in Exhibit D to the Converted Contract will be slightly lower than the estimate it was provided in 2018, because the repayment obligation has been reduced by payments made by Westlands Water District since then.