Water and power are the subject of Thursday’s meeting of the Manteca Patriots.

South San Joaquin Irrigation District’s General Manager Jeff Shields is the speaker for the July 10 program from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Chez Shari (at the Manteca Golf Course).  He will provide an update on both the drought situation’s near and longer-term outlooks for the region as well as SSJID’s bid to become the Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon electric provider to lower costs.

Shields has noted Manteca and the SSJID service area are in relatively good shape this year, but if the drought continues the future impacts may be dramatic as they already are in some areas of the state. The District’s goal is to have enough water available for the irrigation season to assure growers have a successful crop and that the municipal water users receive enough high quality water from the Water Treatment Plant to protect the health and safety of the community. 

Shields will provide the latest forecasts, the water rights battle raging in Sacramento, and why the predicted El Niño does not necessarily mean a wet winter for our region and could result in a drier than average year and worsening drought. In fact, based on previous droughts, Manteca may see its water table drop 20 feet by October with impacts to some wells and to growing salt intrusion to our aquifer. Read more on the actions SSJID is taking at: http://www.ssjid.com/drought-info/default.htm

The meeting is free and open to all. The Manteca Patriots is a nonpartisan Tea Party Patriots group. For more information go to http://MantecaPatriots.org.