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The drought may be over, but Sacramento residents will still have to limit their watering. The Sacramento City Council voted Tuesday to make permanent twice-a-week outdoor watering restrictions despite Gov. Jerry Brown in April lifting a drought state of emergency for California after record-setting winter rainfall. The motion passed 6 to 3, with Councilmembers Angelique Ashby, Allen Warren and Larry Carr voting no. Many residents spoke in favor of the restrictions, but tree activists asked the council to exempt certain watering practices aimed at protecting tree health.

The state Department of Water Resources is beginning to lay the gravel foundation for spawning salmon. This comes as much of the gravel was washed away with high flows from the Oroville Dam spillway this winter. DWR expects to finish the project by the end of August, in time for the salmon’s spawning season starting in September, according to a press release issued Monday afternoon. Using heavy equipment, an estimated 5,000 cubic yards of gravel will be placed in the Feather River channel behind the Municipal Auditorium.

When Jake Tibbitts heard rumors about the two cattle shot at Sadler Ranch, it didn’t occur to him that water could be the potential motive, although the rancher would later make that claim. Water is a contentious topic in Eureka County, a tight-knit community of about 2,000 in rural central Nevada where Tibbitts, who oversees the county’s Natural Resources Department, has been working to prevent a vital water source from running dry.

The winter of 2017 was a gift in many ways. Not only did it bring desperately needed water to California and end a statewide drought emergency, it highlighted the need to build more surface water storage projects like Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River. California’s investment in water infrastructure has not kept up with the ever-growing demand for water supply. Many aging facilities don’t have the capacity necessary to keep up with our state’s population growth. Friant Dam and Millerton Lake are too small to capture runoff from the massive watershed above it.

Growing numbers of Southern California ratepayers are standing in opposition to Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels, considered by opponents to be the most environmentally destructive and unjust public works project in California history. “MWD is the biggest water buyer in California,” said Tim Stroshane, Policy Analyst for Restore the Delta. “Recent presentations from MWD staff reveal a misguided belief that the way to fix the Delta is by destroying it with tunnels. CA WaterFix is neither a reliable nor cost-effective way to build southern California water supply reliability for the future.”