Friant Water Authority

Friant Water Authority, a California-based nonprofit water agency, receives federal grants as a prime recipient from the Bureau of Reclamation and serves as a sub-recipient on Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster-assistance awards, with no contract prime work in its federal footprint.

Friant Water Authority operates as a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Lindsay, California. The vendor's federal footprint spans five awards across two agencies: the Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation (3 awards) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (2 sub-awards). The organization does not compete for federal contracts and does not hold seats on government-wide acquisition vehicles; its federal engagement is entirely grant-based. The vendor's activity is sparse — one award in 2016, one in 2018, then a gap until 2024 — with the most recent award arriving in January 2025.

Friant Water Authority's primary federal capability is water supply forecasting and snow-water management in California's San Joaquin River Basin. The Bureau of Reclamation awarded the vendor a $3.6 million cooperative agreement under the Snow Water Supply Forecasting program (CFDA 15.078) on January 30, 2025, running through December 2027. The three-year project involves airborne snow observatory flights, in-situ snow course data collection, historical modeling analysis, and development of elevation-banded snow-water equivalent estimation tools across approximately 1,458 square miles in the upper San Joaquin River Basin. The award explicitly requires data-sharing with the California Department of Water Resources, the California Nevada River Forecast Center, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other agencies supporting forecasting research for the San Joaquin River Basin and Western U.S. water management. In its sub-recipient capacity, Friant Water Authority receives FEMA funding through the Office of Emergency Services for two disaster-assistance awards: Friant Desilting Canal (November 22, 2024) and Friant Water Authority Emergency Protective Measures (November 14, 2024). Two awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, signaling potential recompete opportunity on renewal or successor grants. The vendor's federal footprint reflects a specialized water-resource and emergency-management focus serving a single region rather than a competitive federal contracting posture.