You are now in California and the U.S. category.

If you haven’t been outside the Bay Area bubble this spring, the sight of the high-water levels at recreation lakes across Northern California will make your jaw drop.

Memorial Day weekend is two weeks off, and dozens of lakes are filling in time for the start of the vacation season. Many lakes will hit their peak in the next two weeks. A great summer is imminent for lake-based vacation and recreation — camping, boating and fishing.

 

An NBC Bay Area analysis of projects funded by California’s $7.5 billion water bond found little high-tech, innovative projects that some say are needed to upgrade the State’s aging water infrastructure. NBC Bay Area’s analysis also discovered that no money has, so far, gone to fund drought solutions included in the bond such as desalination projects, direct stormwater management and efforts to fund integrated regional water management among 13 different regions.

Delaware County residents who saturate their lawns or refill their pools could see a dramatic jump in their water bills this summer.

Del-Co Water Co. announced a new rate structure to begin next month that will target those who use an excessive amount of water during the peak summer months. “Excessive” is defined as more than 25,000 gallons per month. The average homeowner uses about 5,000 gallons per month and will see an increase of less than 2 percent on a typical $35 bill.

As Americans across the country scrambled to get their taxes filed before the midnight deadline last month, many homeowners found themselves with a new reason to feel frustrated.

Their complaint: they may have been hit with a higher tax bill just for working with their local water utility to reduce their water footprint over the last year.

California’s two Democratic senators remain somewhat out of sync over proposed water legislation, underscoring its ambiguous future on the eve of a big hearing.

Four months after Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s introduction of her latest California water package, Sen. Barbara Boxer is still evaluating the 185-page bill. Her wait-and-see attitude hints at complex undercurrents, as she supports some parts of Feinstein’s bill while seeking more feedback about other parts.