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Construction continues on the Oroville Dam’s main spillway this week. The Department of Water Resources has been working to reconstruct the the main spillway which was damaged in February because of heavy winter rain. Crews with Kiewit Corp., the lead contractor on the job, are working around the clock to rebuild enough of the main spillway in time for next rainy season. The deadline for the rebuild is Nov. 1. A study by an independent forensic team found that poor design and construction in the 1960s led to the failure of the spillway.

The value of water as a liquid is obvious. We can drink it, use it to clean ourselves and our things, swim in it to cool off and to play, and build dams across it to harvest its energy. Water as clouds are also essential: they are key for the way they deliver precipitation to cropland and forests. But scientists now say we may have been overlooking the most useful stage of the water cycle.

The water project that north Delta communities fear will end their way of life may have met its own ending, after the plan to finance it collapsed unexpectedly in a Central California boardroom last week.

News of the twin tunnels’ setback came September 20, when the Westlands Water District, which serves farms in Fresno and King counties, voted not to participate in financing its share of the $17 billion project. The WWD’s manager told the Sacramento Bee that signing on would cause too much monetary pain. The district was expected to pay roughly $3 billion.

A new, U.S.-Mexico agreement provides more Colorado River water to both countries, will require both countries to share inevitable river shortages and offers more certainty as to how much river water will be available for both countries. That’s how negotiators, federal officials and Arizona water officials see the upshot of the pact that was signed this week at a Santa Fe, New Mexico, ceremony following years of negotiations. The agreement, known as Minute 323, is aimed at establishing ground rules for managing the river for the two countries through 2026.

Humboldt County recorded its third highest rainfall total in the 2016-17 water year since records first began 130 years ago, according to the National Weather Service Eureka. The downpour caused tens of millions of dollars in damage to local infrastructure and seemingly failed to produce the beneficial effects to fish and wildlife on the Klamath River that some were hoping for. Nearly 64 inches of rain were recorded at the weather service’s Woodley Island station from the start of the water year on Oct. 1, 2016, through Wednesday.