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The state Department of Water Resources intends to open the spillway boat launch ramp after construction at the dam is complete, but there is a possibility it will stay out of commission, according to a department official. The spillway boat launch is the largest on the lake, with up to 12 lanes when the water is high enough. DWR confirmed the ramp may remain closed indefinitely for the first time in a press call on Oct. 4.

In a landmark vote closely watched across California, Silicon Valley’s largest water agency on Tuesday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion plan to build two giant tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. By a vote of 7-0, the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board of directors chose instead to adopt a set of principles endorsing a significantly smaller, less costly project — with just one tunnel. “What magnitude of project makes sense?” asked board member Barbara Keegan. “From our perspective that looks to be something less than originally was envisioned.”

Tuesday is the day the momentum behind Gov. Jerry Brown’s twin-tunnel plan that threatens the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could change — for the better. The Santa Clara Valley Water District Board will decide whether to commit to raising ratepayer taxes by at least $1 billion to pay for its share of the Big Dud — Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion “WaterFix” plan to build two massive, 35-mile, 40-foot-high tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that won’t add a drop of new water to California’s supply.

As portrayed in novels, the California of the future is barely habitable. Brutal storms alternate with crushing droughts. Mudslides and wildfires create waves of climate change refugees.

Fiction? Perhaps less so after last week.

The wildfires in northern California obliterated neighbourhoods; killed dozens, made thousands evacuate or homeless; stunned fire authorities with its fast-moving blazes and tinderbox conditions that, as Governor Jerry Brown said, “we’ve never seen”.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recalls Gov. Jerry Brown pitching her to support his costly twin-tunnels water plan. He showed her the environmental analysis and she was shocked.

Shocked not at the contents, but at the documents’ size.

“He had the environmental impact reports on his picnic table in his office,” she told me last week. “They were 5 feet tall and 10 feet wide.”