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Kids will have another way to keep their cool starting Friday when Modesto turns back on some of its splash fountains, which it turned off two summers ago because of the drought.

The City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday to grant an exemption for the splash fountains from the city’s drought rules. The fountains could reopen as soon as Friday afternoon.

Councilwoman Kristi Ah You cast the “no” vote. In an interview, Ah You said she is concerned about the drought and that there are other options for kids, such as public swimming pools.

Most central San Joaquin Valley water suppliers met their water conservation mandates in May.

In the third month of lower water-use mandates, 14 of 21 suppliers in the Valley achieved water-saving goals set by the state. Statewide, Californians also were successful in conserving water. Residential water use decreased by 28 percent in May, compared with the same month in 2013. And cumulatively, the statewide reduction for the 12 months from June 2015 to May 2016 was 24.5 percent, the State Water Resources Control Board said Wednesday. Overall, residents saved 1.6 million acre-feet of water since mandatory conservation standards began – enough water to supply 8 million people for a year.

 

This may be what the start of a water war looks like.

Drought is draining the West’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead, to historic low levels. Forecasts say climate change will make things worse. Headlines warn of water shortages and cutbacks. Members of Congress are moving to protect their states’ supplies.

Yet if war is really imminent, why is one of the region’s most experienced water managers doing the same thing he has done for years: tinkering?

“I like to describe this as another incremental step,” said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

California’s ancient redwood forests aren’t just majestic and among the oldest living things on Earth — a new study finds they are a particularly potent weapon against global warming.

The towering trees remove and store more carbon from the atmosphere per acre than any other forests on the planet, including tropical rain forests, researchers found in a discovery that could influence everything from logging rules to how parks are preserved as the state grapples with climate change.

The Sites Project Authority announced recently it will begin seeking additional entities to participate in Phase 1 of the reservoir project.

Phase 1 of the project includes completing studies that are required for submitting an application under Proposition 1 by June 2017. The proposition is intended to supply up to half of the funding required for surface storage projects in California. The Sites Project Authority has already started on studies needed for the application but is seeking other entities to help with the process.