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Despite a personal push from Gov. Jerry Brown, the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Board of Directors gave a resounding “no” the other day to helping to pay for his plan for two 35-mile tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to help deliver water to the Central Valley and Southern California. The district was being asked to kick in $620 million to the project. The seven-member board’s vote against the idea was unanimous.

The state Department of Water Resources has received a satirical award for its management of the Oroville Dam crisis from the Independent Institute, which also recommends the department transfer dam ownership to private entities. The Oakland-based institute gives the California Golden Fleece Award quarterly to state government agencies that “swindle taxpayers or violate the public trust.”

Bringing more certainty to an unruly and unpredictable Colorado River system was a common theme among water managers speaking at the Colorado River District’s annual seminar September 15. Although the drought that has gripped much of the Colorado River Basin for the past 16 years has eased up a bit, population growth and the long dry spell have pushed the river’s supplies to the limit, with every drop of water in the system now accounted for.

After enduring the driest stretch of years in our history, and then logging the wettest spell on record this past winter, befuddled Californians have one question on their minds these days: What’s next? In two words: La Niña. But whether the water temperature pattern hatching right now in the Pacific Ocean will leave the Golden State high and dry this winter as it’s often done in the past is anyone’s guess. Particularly since it’s quite similar to the pattern we saw last year, and we know how that turned out.

A Northern California water agency has voted for a stripped down, less costly version of Gov. Jerry Brown’s $16 billion project to build two massive water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board voted 7-0 Tuesday to adopt a set of principles endorsing a project with just one tunnel. The San Jose Mercury News says the vote further throws the future of one of Brown’s major construction priorities into doubt.