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Legislation to protect California’s aquifers and groundwater resources from permanent damage due to over-pumping has been approved by the state Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water on a 6-2 vote.

“This is a serious problem that affects everyone, and it’s getting worse,” says Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, the author of the legislation.

Groundwater extraction through new and deeper drilling has sharply increased across the Central Valley and much of the rest of the state during the drought, including in water basins critically overdrafted by established water demands.

Southern California’s biggest, thirstiest and most powerful water district is buying a big chunk of the Delta, the very estuary that is dying because outfits like them take too much water.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is going to buy Bouldin, Bacon, Webb and Holland islands in the central Delta, and a chip off Chipps Island near Suisun Bay.

The Met’s boss has said this is mostly about repairing Delta habitat. That’s like the Big Bad Wolf buying the Three Little Pigs’ houses and saying he’s into home remodeling.

Southern California’s biggest, thirstiest and most powerful water district is buying a big chunk of the Delta, the very estuary that is dying because outfits like them take too much water.The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is going to buy Bouldin, Bacon, Webb and Holland islands in the central Delta, and a chip off Chipps Island near Suisun Bay.The Met’s boss has said this is mostly about repairing Delta habitat. That’s like the Big Bad Wolf buying the Three Little Pigs’ houses and saying he’s into home remodeling.

These days, when dams in the U.S. make news, it’s often concrete getting blasted, not bedrock. And last week, the biggest dam-removal project in history got a crucial endorsement.

Over the past few weeks, the equatorial Pacific has been cooling. The extreme tropical temperatures that broke records earlier this winter have waned, and El Niño, though still present, is a shadow of its former Godzilla self. It signals a possible shift to the Pacific’s other phase, La Niña.

The strength of El Niño is measured by how abnormally warm the ocean water is in the equatorial Pacific. El Niño can be classified as “very strong” if surface waters are running at least 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average for at least three months in a row.