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A bill that could save money for rural ranchers who divert water by easing a state regulation is awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature. The California Cattlemen’s Association-backed legislation by Assemblyman Frank Bigelow, R-O’Neals, would change a State Water Resources Control Board rule that those who divert more than 10 acre-feet of water per year hire a licensed engineer to install a water-measuring device. Assembly Bill 589 would allow diverters to instead install their own devices or implement their own measurement method if they take a course from the University of California Cooperative Extension, CCA officials explain.

Few things are as important to California’s 39.5 million residents as the quality and allocation of the state’s water. Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, wants to hand over more power in that arena to Big Ag by changing how water rights cases are enforced. Gov. Jerry Brown should veto Gray’s AB 313 and keep those issues where they belong — in the hands of the State Water Resources Control Board.

Water management in the West can often seem to pit people against wildlife, but it doesn’t have to, according to a recent report by the National Audubon Society. The report highlights how drying saline lakes in the West and changing riparian habitat along the Colorado River are impacting migrating birds. But the two habitats also share a vulnerability to climate change and water management. The demand for water from growing metropolitan areas, like Salt Lake City, is often at the expense of these habitats and wildlife.

Like every autumn, October is bringing cooler weather, changing leaves and pumpkins to fields across California. But unlike the past five years, when a historic drought gripped the state, there’s something new across the landscape: full reservoirs. From a water supply standpoint, California is heading into this winter’s rainy season in much better shape than any year since 2011. San Luis Reservoir, the massive inland sea between Gilroy and Los Banos that provides key supplies for Central Valley farmers and cities from San Jose to San Diego, is 86 percent full. A year ago it was only a quarter full.

As California continues an epic regulatory effort to reallocate water supplies for salmon habitat, an equally big question looms over the process: How much water do salmon and other native fish really need? The question is at the core of a process led by the State Water Resources Control Board to take water from existing human uses – both agriculture and urban – and rededicate it to instream environmental flows in the San Joaquin River, the state’s second-largest river.