Philipp was an investment professional at King Street Capital, a large hedge fund, where he led investments in real asset sectors throughout Europe. The judge on Thursday may find in Sandridges favor as she already issued a tentative ruling last week which noted that, The use of the heavy equipment to stop the pipe project is not a protected tactic under the law.. Im actually not supposed to talk about it.. It wanted an operating agreement and hefty insurance coverage. The plaintiffs, Kings County Ventures and Green Renewable Organic and Water Holdings, sued after the deal fell through in 2009 for their Quay Valley project. The comments dont come from Boswell and Vidovich themselves, of course, but from the groundwater sustainability agencies each farming operation essentially controls. When asked if he applies the skills he learned in his military intelligence training to his life today, he answers that we all use the things we learn through life. Enforcement could involve pumping limits, fines, and large pumping fees per acre-foot. Previously, Hugues was a principal investment professional at GDF SUEZ, leading transaction in LNG, infrastructure and power projects globally. Our farming company, Sandridge Partners, farms thousands of acres of almonds each year in the central region of California providing an ever-increasing supply of almonds. Its just smart business. The land in and around the city of Corcoran has been subsiding for many years, the Southwest Kings GSA comment letter states. And the consequences of this could be far reaching. And one Kern County water district could be the linchpin to it all. Levees were built in 1983 to protect Corcoran from Kings River floodwater. He sold rights to more than 14,000 acre feet a year to the Mojave Water Agency in San Bernardino County for a headline-grabbing $73 million. SunnyGem is the one-stop-shop for your almond needs, packing and shipping California varieties worldwide. Under his leadership, Buena Vista has installed a pipeline system to reduce reliance on canals, which lose a lot of water to seepage and the district has become extremely active in buying up land for water banking. According to news reports, he owns Sandridge Partners, LP, a farmland investment firm that has accumulated more than 100,000 acres of Valley farmland in recent years. After all, Vidovich, water and pipelines have a history in Kings County. She also found that Tulare Lake Canal Company did not have the right under its easement to block the pipeline with heavy equipment and ordered the tractors off the canal banks. Meanwhile, the complaint against Sandridge by Tulare Lake Canal Company is still pending. Heavy equipment blockading a pipeline project from cutting through a canal was ordered removed on Friday and the pipeline project was halted temporarily by a Kings County Superior Court judge. He ran, unsuccessfully for city council in his hometown of Los Altos Hills in 2006. Or even to the great water bogeyman that haunts so many valley farmers Los Angeles? We welcome you to contact us to discuss how we might partner to create mutually beneficial opportunities in the agribusiness sector. We listen to our customers, understand their needs and are never satisfied until they are. There is some uncertainty by El Rico GSA with regard to this request because of the hidden nature of Sandridges operations. Ghana Business News - The first place for your business news. The sprawling Semitropic Water Storage District in Kern County wants Kings River flood water that it says current rights holders are letting flow to the ocean in heavy precipitation years. But the letter continued to intrigue Chrissakis. Most recently, Muriel started and successfully built her own hospitality business. river water? DWR staffers now have two years to decide if the plans come up to snuff or not. Now Boswell is. He certainly looks the part in his well-worn jeans and checkered shirts. Legally? Numbers havent been set in stone just yet, but its looking like the Kings/Tulare farming areas will settle somewhere near allowing 1.5 acre feet of water to be pumped per acre. They are now the driving forces behind two major legal battles over Kings River water. Satellite images from NASA show the area around the well fields Angiola was pulling from is the epicenter for land subsidence in eastern Tulare County from overpumping. When pressed, though, they acknowledged it could be done. We partner with exceptional agriculture and food companies to guide them through rapid yet sustainable growth, to become clear industry leaders. Our stewardship and value creation track-record is unparalleled and our investing, operations and business . His strategy has always been to use about 30% of his land for farming and 70% for its water. After Vidovich sold his Dudley Ridge state water, Pace said he drilled several wells in Green Valley, built a pipeline across I-5 and took the valleys groundwater to keep his Dudley Ridge trees alive. California produces 99% of all domestic walnuts. At one point, he was moving nearly 30,000 acre feet a year, according to Angiolas records. His father, Stephen Vidovich, formed De Anza Properties and helped develop the valley. Home | DMCA | SJV Content Use | Contact, Copyright 2022 SJV Water. Site development by. Though the project is billed as flood control, the agreement also allows Vidovich to move groundwater. At the time, I was heavy with state water but the state water had low allocations and I had no other water source over there (Dudley Ridge land in western Kings County).. At Sunridge Partners, Hugues has also been CFO of a portfolio business. We are one of the largest vertically integrated almond suppliers in the world. Theres so many canals and ways it can move; its hard to track, he said. The only water Green Valley got was some surplus state water and natural groundwater, Pace said. (Source: Sandridge Partners cross-complaint) This fight between Boswell and Sandridge is just the latest between the two farming giants, which own more than 230,000 acres in Kings County between them. Im all for moving water around, he said. Weather. He recalls that when he was growing up, the region was dotted with small dairies, orchards, rotating crops of corn, cotton and alfalfa, and open grazing land with sloughs that could absorb water in flood years. Like its neighbors, Kings is intensively farmed. Comments from the Boswell camp got downright personal, calling out Vidovich by name and all but accusing him of hiding groundwater usage by moving it through pipes outside the area. World, Latest Through Sandridge, Vidovich owns about 130,000 acres with 38,500 acres in Kern, 82,000 acres in Kings, 9,500 acres in Tulare and 300 acres in Fresno county, per ParcelQuest. It got to a point where the only way we could get an approval was to go to the voters, he told the Silicon Valley Business Journal hours after filing the initiative paperwork in April 2016. A trial date has been set for December 2022. Sports, Crime It now retains about 132,000 acres in Kings as well as 3,700 acres in Tulare County and 23,000 acres in Kern County, according to ParcelQuest, a property information database. And thats the biggest issue. News, Latest While at Sunridge Partners, Philipp was also the interim CEO for one of its portfolio businesses. John Lewis plc, 171 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5NN. Sunridge Partners actively seek investment opportunities that address the growing challenges in food and agriculture. As for Angiolas involvement, Chrissakis found a Jan. 17 letter to Tulare Lake Canal Company, in which Angiola says it will use the pipeline and indemnify the canal company for any damage from the pipeline, highly relevant.. They have the original 1881 homestead certificate signed by a secretary in the James Garfield administration for 80 acres southeast of Lemoore, where they still live and farm. But hes also moved his State Water Project supplies south to lands he owns in Kern County. The Blakeley runs southwest next to Highway 41 down to Kettleman City, conveniently near to the California Aqueduct. Semitropic Water Storage District in Kern County has applied for the flood water which it plans to store on land owned by Vidovich near Kettleman City, between the Blakeley Canal and California Aqueduct. It will likely never be forgotten that Vidovich sold the rights to 14,000 acre feet of State Water Project water for $79 million in 2009 to the San Bernardino-based Mojave Water District. Vidovich made headlines and a lot of enemies in 2009 by permanently selling rights to 14,000 acre feet of state water from a Kings County water district to southern California for $73 million, according to media reports. But in the ongoing legal fracas, a declaration by Sandridge Farm Manager Craig Andrew sketches out the picture. From our farming company, growing partners, and all of our employees we pay attention to every detail of our almonds, from the orchards to the finished product. Whitney said the letter wasnt an actual agreement, but part of a back and forth between Sandridge and Tulare Lake Canal Company that was never accepted nor executed. Boswell has also been moving water out of Kings. Sunridge Partners (UK), LLP acts as the investment advisor for the Sunridge funds that invest in agribusinesses globally. But its difficult when right next door theyre dropping [water levels] 60 to 100 feet, Russ Freeman, Westlands Deputy General Manager for water resources, said in a previous SJV Water article. About 25,000 acre feet of groundwater. His pumping and movement of groundwater out of its home district has also landed him in a dubious spotlight, according to media reports. SANDRIDGE PARTNERS, L.P. Company Number 201005600010 Status Active Incorporation Date 4 February 2010 (about 13 years ago) Company Type Limited Partnership - CA Jurisdiction California (US) Registered Address 920 WEST FREMONT AVE SUNNYVALE CA 94087 United States Directors / Officers JOHN VIDOVICH, LLC, general partner Inactive Directors / Officers We further understand that Mr. Vidovich has caused both surface and pumped groundwater to be physically moved via pipeline and canals from and to lands controlled by him, thereby crossing boundaries of counties, GSAs, water districts, subbasins, defined places of use, and perhaps areas that are otherwise regulated.. If so, it would mean the pipeline would have to undergo a full blown environmental impact report, including multiple public hearings. Whether those pipes end on Vidovich lands or Resnicks is hard to know. A large water pipeline being built near Lemoore in Kings County is raising eyebrows as much for its possible uses as for the name associated with its construction John Vidovich. Earlier this week, a Kings County Superior Court Judge ordered a preliminary injunction on the pipeline owned by Sandridge Partners and Santa Clara County's John Vidovich, as first reported by SJV Water. Kings County is small by San Joaquin Valley standards only 1,392 square miles, or just about the size of Rhode Island. Karen isnt the only one who feels this way. - John Vidovich, owner of Sandridge Partners. In the meantime, Boswell and Vidovich have brought their concerns to Californias DWR, which oversees transfers involving state water. The 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno has overturned a $73.4 million verdict against McCarthy Family Farms and Bay Area developer John Vidovich and Sandridge Partners involving a land. Our farming company, Sandridge Partners, farms thousands of acres of almonds each year in the central region of California providing an ever-increasing supply of almonds. More recently, he filed a voter initiative in 2016 to allow a 48-foot-tall hotel after the Cupertino City Council shot down a De Anza proposal for building a 105-foot-tall hotel in the western Santa Clara Valley town. You may have never heard of John Vidovich, but his impact on the day-to-day life of the average southern San Joaquin Valley farmer is difficult to be understated. The website iswww.sjvwater.org. But, she said, her department cant really step in until it has reviewed groundwater plans submitted to the state in 2020. About 90% of its farms are considered family owned, according to the 2017 US Department of Agriculture farm census. We havent sat down and put dye in the water to watch where it actually goes. He said he bought his first parcel here in 1994 when he invested in a foreclosed property in Kings County. The most recent Boswell-Vidovich beef joins at least two other ongoing legal battles over water. Enter your email address to receive INSTANT ALERTS of new articles and to be added to SJV Waters WEEKLY NEWSLETTER. Two giant Central Valley farming companies are slinging serious mud at one another over groundwater. Water from Angiola Water District will also be moved in the line, according to a declaration by Angiola General Manager Mark Grewal. Contributed Developer, farmer and water trader John Vidovich plans to build a beef feedlot and processing plant near Lemoore according to a preliminary application filed with the county. The large, black pipe could be seen . Will this pipeline move water out of Kings County to farmers in Kern County? Exporting large amounts of water from one farm region to another and aggressively pumping groundwater both negatively affect other landowners. Sandridge Partners, controlled by Vidovich, is building a 10-mile-long route on its properties to ship water from its wells in the north to its thirsty fields in the south. After all, Vidovich, water and pipelines have a history in Kings County. Because once its pumped out, we arent getting it back.. The canal company sued but couldnt immediately stop the project. But the purpose of the 48-inch Sandridge pipeline has been the subject of intense curiosity since last November when farmers first noticed excavators gouging a giant trench into the earth from north of Lemoore meandering 12 miles south to Stratford and, presumably, ending in the Blakeley Canal. Avila, along with his wife and children, grows nearly 100 varieties of fruit trees on multiple small plots of land and sells the produce at dozens of farmers markets from Beverly Hills to San Luis Obispo. In one battle, the Kings River Water Association, where Boswell is a major rights holder, is suing Tulare Lake Reclamation District 761 and Sandridge Partners, run by Vidovich, for shipping its Kings River water to lands it owns in western Kings County. The case status is Disposed - Dismissed. A strong, diverse farming sector is vital to the local economy and food security and it requires water. Now, Pace said, Vidovich will do the same thing on a larger scale by moving Kings and Tulare groundwater to Kern County. He was in military intelligence and had a top secret clearance that involved gathering data and evaluating products they made, he said. The title Baron Sandridge was given to Churchill by James II in 1685, and was his first English peerage title (his earlier title, Baron Eyemouth, had been created in 1682 by James . Through Sandridge, Vidovich owns about 130,000 acres with 38,500 acres in Kern, 82,000 acres in Kings, 9,500 acres in Tulare and 300 acres in Fresno county, per ParcelQuest. But those numbers reflect full contracted allocations. Mavens Notebook is an excellent daily accounting of California water happenings statewide. Though Vidovich didnt feel state water movement would substantially impact Kings County farming, he still predicted farming will shrink there. Mitchell agreed, giving Vidovich credit for seeing where groundwater laws were headed before anyone else. Since 2009, the company has transferred or sold 102,000 acre feet of its surface water out of the county, according to records from DWR, Tulare Lake Basin Storage District and the Kern County water agency. Home | DMCA | SJV Content Use | Contact, Copyright 2022 SJV Water. Angiola was rehabbing old wells, drilling new ones and installed a large pipeline. While the letter was improvident, attorney Whitney said, it certainly wasnt any kind of peak behind the curtain maintaining it wasnt an official indemnification by Angiola. At this point, he said, he uses about 30 percent of his land for farming and 70 percent for water. Though the Gilcreases expanded to 700 acres at one point, they had to sell off part of their land because they didnt have the water to keep farming it.
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