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The Bay Area has experienced February dry spells before, including twice from 2013 to 2016 during California’s historic drought when rainfall totals were drastically below the monthly average. But this February could close with a distinction most in the Bay Area would like to avoid. This could become the first February in more than 150 years with no rainfall. The only major Bay Area city to go the entire month of February without rain is San Francisco in 1864. San Francisco has the longest set of weather data in the Bay Area, going back to 1850.

More than six years after critics began calling for a full economic study of the Delta tunnels plan, the Brown administration released one on Tuesday, finding that the benefits outweigh the costs — albeit by a slim margin for some water users. Delta interests immediately dismissed the study as skewed and speculative. The new study looks only at the first of the two tunnels, which now are expected to be built in phases after officials couldn’t get water districts to commit to the full $17 billion cost.

In a dramatic twist on the Delta tunnels saga, Southern California’s powerful water agency is exploring the feasibility of owning the majority stake in the controversial project, a move that raises fears of a “water grab.” Under the plan floated Monday by three board members, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California would pour an extra $6 billion or more into the tunnels plan beyond what it has already pledged, enabling the twin tunnels to get built at the same time.

Yesterday, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) General Manager Jeff Kightlinger reported to MWD Board Members on the Water Planning and Stewardship Committee that the new phased-in tunnels project would require a $5.1 billion contribution and that MWD would receive the same amount of water with operation of the first 6,000 cfs tunnel, as they would with operation of two 4,500 cfs tunnels.

If California taxpayers are going to spend $2.7 billion on new water storage projects, the projects had better come with many more environmental benefits. That was the message sent by the California Water Commission, which on February 2 released its first analysis of 11 projects vying for a share of the riches. The money will come from Proposition 1, a ballot measure approved by voters in 2014, which empowered the state to issue nearly $2.7 billion in bonds for water storage, whether new reservoirs, groundwater recharge or some form of hybrid.