Irrigation district boasts 50-year veteran

Veteran, farmer and proud father Quinten Luallen knows water.

The Lindsay grower has served on the Lindmore Irrigation District board for the past 50 years, and watched environmental lawsuits proliferate and farmers fight dry years to stay in business. The fight for access to water — one of the most divisive issues in California — has only intensified during his half century tenure.

“I have enjoyed every bit of it,” he said. “There have been times I’ve wanted to blow my stack, but you just have to use your common sense to do your best for everyone.”

Since 1959, the Illinois native has spent the second Tuesday of each month setting aside his personal goals as a farmer and working to distribute water as equitably and affordably as he could.

Though Luallen never went looking for an irrigation district position; it was brought directly to him.

In September 1959, board president Theodore Cairns resigned after he moved out of the district, leaving a seat empty.

According to the minutes from the Lindmore Irrigation District board meeting of Sept. 8, 1959, “all agreed that [Luallen] would be a good man if he would accept the appointment.”

As he was sitting on his tractor, a group of men approached him one day to ask him if he would take the job.
“I didn’t know a thing about water, but I told them I’d think about it,” he said.

Soon after, he was installed on the board. At his first meeting, he seconded three of four proposals presented. He became president Jan. 11, 1971, and has since headed the board.

When he first began serving as a board member, the major water rights lawsuit was Rank vs. Krug. It, too, like today’s litigation, addressed who should get water: Central Valley farmers or San Joaquin River fish.

Compared to today’s turmoil, however, Luallen said Rank vs. Krug was “just a drop in the bucket.”

He calls the present day battle over Friant Dam water “absolutely ridiculous.” A coalition headed by the Natural Resource Defense Council has lobbied for years for the reestablishment of San Joaquin River fisheries using water from the Friant Division, of which Lindmore is a part.

“The life of a fish is considered more important than human life,” he said.

The environment is important, Luallen said, but the price paid by farmers as environmentalists have worked to help assist fish populations has caused a “disaster.”

“We all believe in clean water, clean air, but this is going to hurt everyone in the long run,” he said.

He said environmental litigation has contributed to the “tremendous” rise in the cost of water.

In 1959, Luallen said the cost of water per acre-foot was $6. Now, it is $55.

Though stubborn in his belief that farmers deserve reasonable water, otherwise, he said, he has learned that being “hard-headed” just doesn’t work

“There are things I could do as a board member that would be beneficial for myself, but you need to help everybody,” he said.

Each time he sits down in the president’s chair in the Lindmore boardroom, he “takes off the hat he wears at home” to exchange it for a neutral one.

“You’re not the same person,” he said. “You can’t be.”

Luallen will be honored by the Tulare County Board of Supervisors at its meeting tomorrow for his 50 years of service to the Lindmore Irrigation District.

Currently, Luallen lives on the north end of Lindsay, in a one-story house situated in front of a 10 acre orange grove.

Born in Illinois, his family moved to California and purchased a grove in Lindsay. Because his father still owned property in the Midwest, they traveled back and forth frequently.

“We used to kid my dad that he could borrow flour there and just return it on his next trip,” he said.
Even so, Luallen “really grew up here.” He attended Lindsay High School, and worked for his father on his acreage.

In May 1942, he was drafted into the military.

As an airplane mechanic, he traveled to Texas, Utah and Indiana before shipping out to England.

However, on the way orders changed and Luallen found himself in Panama.

As part of the Army Air Corps, he guarded the Panama Canal from the threat of a Japanese attack. He was also stationed in Ecuador, Peru and Guatemala.

Upon his discharge, he and his wife Donna purchased a 20 acre property on Ash Avenue.

It was that land he was cultivating when he received his unexpected visit from the members of the 1959 Lindmore Irrigation District board.

Now, he enjoys fruit from abundant citrus trees planted next to his home for personal use, including tangelos, blood oranges and ruby red grapefruit.

Two to three times a week, Luallen visits his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, in Visalia. He recently got knee replacement surgery, and has been recuperating since — “just loafing,” he said.

Before he knee began troubling him, he and his wife spent time at Shaver Lake, hiking and fishing. He has two sons, the youngest of which is a noted salmon fly tier.

Framed memories hang on the kitchen wall — a VFW certificate, the first check from the Friant Power Authority to the Lindmore District.

Though many things have changed since Luallen’s installation in 1959, he said the topic of board meeting’s hasn’t changed. He still asks himself the same question he always has: “Are we going to have sufficient water this year?”

-- Contact Sarah de Crescenzo at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or sdecrescenzo@portervillerecorder.com.