Lance Johnson, the new San Benito County Water District manager,
is an old drought warrior.
Hollister – Lance Johnson, the new San Benito County Water District manager, is an old drought warrior.
Johnson, whose predecessor John Gregg passed the torch four months ago, has split his 28 years in the water business between private and public agencies.
In 1986, the 57-year-old became the manager of the Westlands Water District’s engineering department in Fresno, just in time for California’s five-year drought.
“I hoped that at the end of the last drought that one would be enough in a career to deal with,” Johnson said.
But now that Johnson has taken on the responsibility of importing water from the Central Valley Project to the county, he’s faced with the second drought of his career.
Another dry year, coupled with a court ruling to protect the habitat of the endangered delta smelt fish in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, could reduce importation of San Felipe water for agricultural use in San Benito County up to 90 percent in 2008, the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority has estimated.
“This is a regulatory drought,” Johnson said. “The implications of which up and down the state are utterly immense.”
The importation of water into the county during 2008 could, at worst, change week to week, Johnson said.
It will be Johnson’s biggest challenge as the district’s manager, San Benito County Water District Board Member Ken Perry said.
But Johnson hopes he can use his experience from years of working with agencies that import water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta to help the district’s customers navigate through cuts from the drought and court ruling.
In 1992, Johnson helped establish the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, the agency from which the county’s water district imports its water.
Perry, who grows apples in the San Juan Valley, said Johnson was a good choice to replace Gregg because of his experience with agricultural water use. Johnson graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, with a bachelor of science degree in agricultural engineering.
“I think it’s good we hired a guy with the knowledge he has,” Perry said.
Johnson has also worked for private engineering firms and has experience with urban water systems. He is married to Sharon Johnson, his wife of 36 years. They live in Shaver Lake, Calif., have two children and two grandchildren with a third on the way.
