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California officials have ordered owners of 93 dams to reinspect their flood-control spillways following the Oroville Dam crisis,saying the spillways need a closer look following a preliminary review. The list released by the Department of Water Resources includes some of the largest dams in California, such as the New Exchequer Dam on the Merced River, New Bullards Bar on the Yuba River, and Lake Almanor Dam on the Feather River in Plumas County. Each holds back reservoirs roughly the size of Folsom Lake, which can store about 977,000 acre-feet of water.

Emerging from a wet winter, state water officials were able to set aside 50,000 acre-feet of water for the Santa Clarita Valley’s water wholesaler, the Castaic Lake Water Agency. How much water is that?  It’s about 50,000 football fields each under one foot of water. This water earmarked for CLWA use is called “carryover” water. Unlike managing water in a drought year, when every drop of water is used, the agency couldn’t use its 50,000 acre-feet of “carryover” water in this current wet year. Consequently, about 35,000 acre-feet of water earmarked for the CLWA went unused.

Slowly — but surely — we are learning that the near-catastrophic failure of Oroville Dam’s main spillway wasn’t truly caused by weather, even though the state claims that in seeking federal aid for repairs. Rather, it resulted from poor engineering and construction when the nation’s highest dam was rising more than a half-century ago as the centerpiece of the State Water Project, and poor maintenance since its completion. The latest evidence is a huge report by a team of engineering experts, headed by Robert Bea and Tony Johnson of the University of California’s Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.

California Governor Jerry Brown has named Sonoma County Water Agency General Manager Grant Davis as the new director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). The appointment, which requires state Senate confirmation, means Davis takes over Aug. 1 as head of the state agency that oversees California’s water supplies. Davis, 54, has been general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency since 2010 when he took over after retirement of Randy Poole. The Davis era at the Water Agency has won praise for transparency and progressive policies in water conservation and environmental restoration of the Russian River watershed.

The drought is over, but Sacramento water officials want to make permanent some of the region’s most restrictive lawn watering rules. The Department of Utilities wants to change the city code to allow sprinkler system watering two days a week during the summer, down from three in typical rainfall years. It will also increase the fines for a second violation of the rules from $25 to $50.Sacramento has kept its twice-weekly drought restrictions in place while other cities have eased rules. The plan, which a City Council subcommittee will consider on Tuesday, isn’t just about slashing water use.