February 14, 2023

SAN JOAQUIN RIVER GROUP AUTHORITY HIRES
LOWELL F. PLOSS AS PROJECT ADMINISTRATOR

The San Joaquin River Group Authority (SJRGA), a Joint Powers Authority of San Joaquin Valley water agencies from Manteca to Bakersfield, today named Lowell F. Ploss as its Project Administrator. Ploss brings more than 30 years of water operations and resource management experience to the job.

The Project Administrator is to coordinate and implement the San Joaquin River Agreement and other SJRGA activities with other state, local and federal agencies.

Allen Short, Modesto Irrigation District General Manager, praises Ploss as "extremely knowledgeable about Central Valley water issues and well-qualified to manage implementation of the Agreement."

Ploss holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Platteville and is active in the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is retired from the Sacramento Office of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation after a long and distinguished career, where he most recently served as Deputy Regional Director of the Bureau's Central Valley Region.

There are two goals of the San Joaquin River Agreement. The first goal is to sustain a healthy fall-run Chinook salmon population in the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. The second is to develop a better scientific understanding of how the survival of salmon smolts is affected by river flows, reductions in water exports and the installation of a fish barrier at the head of Old River. The San Joaquin River Agreement is an intensive ten-year study program.

The SJRGA was created in 1995 to protect the water supply of its member agencies. These include the Modesto, Turlock, South San Joaquin, Merced and Oakdale irrigation districts; the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority; the Friant Water Users Authority; and the City and County of San Francisco.