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For years, California was in need of water, but a series of storms this year have brought the much-needed resource to the state. While more water might be good for Los Angeles, it could mean major flooding in the Owens Valley, especially as the snow melts. Our Eyewitness News drone was over the same lake that Mayor Eric Garcetti toured by helicopter on Monday. He recently declared a state of emergency for the area.

The massive failure of the Oroville Dam’s main spillway in February involved two dozen potential design and maintenance problems, including thin concrete, inadequate reinforcing steel and weaknesses in the foundation, a panel of engineering experts reported Wednesday. A forensic investigation team said it was issuing a preliminary list of causes so that engineers do not repeat the problems as they rush to fix the spillway before the next cycle of rains begins in November. The two-page report does not identify what initiated the failure along the 3,000-foot chute that was used to drain the reservoir during massive winter storms.

It was 1997 when Californians began to worry in earnest about a chemical called perchlorate. For decades, the ingredient in jet fuel had been seeping from missile factories and rocket testing sites into groundwater across the state and, thanks to a new testing method, it was suddenly clear it had reached hundreds of drinking water wells. Soon, researchers discovered that the toxic chemical had reached Lake Mead, the picturesque reservoir that supplies water to 25 million people in the American Southwest and irrigates the fields that grow the lion’s share of the nation’s winter produce.