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As Gov. Jerry Brown noted in his recent State of the State address, water is a fundamental good in California, but not something we can take for granted. With a booming population and economy, we have to make the most of every drop. Our rivers and aquifers simply can’t support water waste, and wise use will become even more important as a changing climate brings hotter summers with less snowpack to sustain us. With nearly half the state plunging back into drought, we must act now to secure a reliable and affordable water future.

Every day, people flock to Daniel Swain’s social media platforms to find out the latest news and insight about California’s notoriously unpredictable weather. Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, famously coined the term “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” in December 2013 to describe the large, formidable high-pressure mass that was parked over the West Coast during winter and diverted storms away from California, intensifying the drought.

California officials tried to smooth the way for the Delta tunnels project by slicing it in half. Instead they’re facing more pushback and the possibility of additional delays. One day after Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration downsized the Delta tunnels project, a host of project opponents tried Thursday to halt a state regulatory hearing that’s crucial to getting it built. They argued that Brown’s decision, after a decade of planning, creates such a monumental change that they need time to analyze the potential impacts on fish, agriculture and the rest of the Delta’s troubled ecosystem.