Modesto Irrigation District Board Member Larry Byrd has refused to show his pumping records ever since last July 8, when he said he ran his deep well pumps “almost daily and sometimes daily” to irrigate out-of-district almonds on the AB La Grange Ranch where he’s a partner with his brother Tim and Ty Angle. The AB La Grange Ranch is leased from owners of properties known as the “Rodoni” and “Rairden” ranches in southeastern Stanislaus County.
After our last report about Byrd pumping river water across parcel and property lines, a public-spirited citizen sent us several years of pumping records he gathered from the State Water Resources Control Board (WRCB). Unlike pumping records for groundwater, riparian records are in a public database. The pumping records are listed under parcel numbers for Rodoni and Rairden acreage along the Tuolumne River.
Byrd’s records for the Rodoni and Rairden properties he leases along the Tuolumne River defy belief. Consider first of all that both properties contain irrigated pastureland. The application for the Rodoni riparian pump says the “stated use” for the river water will be, “50 acres for pasture.” The Rairden pump “stated use” is for 50 acres of almonds and 40 acres of pasture…