Transmission for California’s Central Valley
Frances Mizuno is Assistant Executive Director for the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority.
PUF: San Luis is at the center of this transmission project. Tell me about your organization, and what you do.
Frances Mizuno: The San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority is a joint power authority. We have twenty-eight member agencies.
All these twenty-eight agencies have a water service contract with the federal Bureau of Reclamation for water supply from the Central Valley Project (CVP), whether it be for irrigation, municipal and industrial or refuge/wetland purposes. We represent them in all those issues related to their contract supply. In addition, the Authority operates and maintains certain CVP facilities under contract with Reclamation.
PUF: You serve a certain number of farms in the Central Valley, for the most part?
Frances Mizuno: Yes. In addition to representing these water agencies on water supply issues, we operate and maintain the facilities that pump the water from the Sacramento/San Joaquin River delta and make deliveries to 1.2 million acres of farm land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. In addition, we deliver water to cities and refuges as well.
PUF: Have you become an electric power expert?