About

The Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District includes a service area of approximately 56,500 acres situated in southern Tulare County and northern Kern County along the eastside of the San Joaquin Valley. The District serves over 450 landowners, with an average farm size of approximately 120 acres.

Over 90% of the District is planted to permanent crops, the most prevalent crop being grapes. Other permanent crops include pistachios, almonds, citrus, and various tree fruit. In excess of 20 different crops are grown by our farmers each year.

Kelley was appointed to the Board in November of 2004. Kelley farms 160 acres of almonds, the same property that his father has farmed since 1955. He is the current president of the board of directors.

Heoth is a third generation farmer in DEID. He joined DEID’s Board of Directors in 2021. He works on the family farm alongside his parents and siblings. They farm 160 acres of almonds and run a small apiary of 1,500 hives.

Anthony began serving on the DEID Board in 2021. Anthony’s grandmother and grandfather came to Earlimart in 1914 and 1923, respectively, where they started the family farm that Anthony continues to manage today. Anthony also farms table grapes and almonds on his own property. Anthony’s service on the Board of Directors is driven by a desire to help DEID, his fellow growers, and keep agriculture strong in the District.

Mark has served on the board of directors since May of 2013. Mark is part of a diversified family farming operation that began with his father in the early 1940s. Crops grown by the Kovacevich family include table grapes, almonds, and persimmons.

Peter is a third generation grower in DEID. Peter farms with his brother and their sons in Tulare and Kern counties. In addition to growing citrus, and multiple varieties of table grapes, Pete and his family are major packers and shippers of the Delano area produce. Pete serves as Vice President of the Board.

Eric R. Quinley has served as the General Manager of the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District since 2016. He focuses on aggressively managing the water supply of the Friant Division’s largest water user, overseeing the development of the District’s $50 million in-District water banking facilities, and advancing sustainability efforts for District stakeholders. Additionally, he provides policy support to the Friant Division.

Since joining the District, Mr. Quinley has led nearly a quarter-billion-dollar investment in sustainability projects and management actions. Previously, he held senior leadership roles at the Friant Water Authority, including Interim General Manager and Director of Operations and Maintenance. Before that, he worked in commercial construction management, specializing in large-scale institutional, industrial, and food processing projects, and served as a staff member for a U.S. Member of Congress.

Mr. Quinley holds a Bachelor’s degree from Fresno Pacific University and actively participates in several water and energy-related organizations.

Irrigation in the Delano and Earlimart regions began in the late 1800’s with artesian wells, but by the 1930’s diminished groundwater supplies threatened the area’s continued economic viability. By 1947 the mean depth to groundwater was dangerously low. The Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District was formed in 1938, and signed its original water service contract for water delivery from the Friant Unit of the Central Valley Project with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1951, after the average depth of groundwater had fallen every year since 1905. Since it’s inception, the District has provided consistent and reliable surface water to its constituents.

The District provides irrigation water to over 450 landowners on 56,500 acres of land in southern Tulare and northern Kern counties. Water is distributed through a 172 miles of pressurized pipelines which provides an extremely efficient water delivery system that is the foundation for the District’s water conservation and management program. DEID growers also have adopted a number of on-farm conservation and irrigation efficiency practices including drip, micro and sprinkler irrigation systems.