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All K-12 schools across the state now have the opportunity to get their water checked for lead by their water department. It’s a push by the State Water Resources Control Board to make sure all California schools have access to safe drinking water. “Everybody saw what happened back east. I think that’s where a lot of the concerns are, but we have a lot of things in place from preventing any of that from happening to us,” said Mike Mares, District Manager with California Water Services.

Despite a wet winter that has much of California emerging from drought, state officials are showing no sign that they’ll ease up on water regulations imposed on cities and towns over the past three years. Staffers at the State Water Resources Control Board sent a proposal Tuesday to the agency’s governing board recommending renewal of emergency drought mandates that have required urban suppliers to put specific quantities of water in reserve, or cut consumption, under the threat of fines.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors proclaimed a local state of emergency effective for 30 days on Tuesday in response to a spate of winter storms this month. Approving a state of emergency allows the county to seek reimbursement from state and federal governments for damage caused by the storms. With more storms expected to move into the area this week, staff said the county’s Emergency Operations Center remains activated.

After a half-decade of drought, California has been buffeted this winter by a series of powerful rain and snowstorms that dumped countless gallons of water on the state’s watersheds. Some of the deluge was captured in the form of mountain snows that will feed rivers and streams during the annual spring melt. But at lower elevations, it was rain, some retained in man-made reservoirs that had been seriously depleted, but most flowing swiftly to the Pacific Ocean.