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Big Bear had a big winter. Or at least it felt like it. Yet it’s August and the lake is 13 feet, 2 inches from full. “Even though up north got a lot of precip, we just did not,” said Mike Stephenson, general manager of the Big Bear Municipal Water District. In mid-August of 2016, Big Bear Lake was down 15 feet, 4 inches, according to MWD historical lake levels. Stephenson said the winter and corresponding water loss was better than an average year. “We weren’t unhappy,” Stephenson said. “We wish it would fill, but that’s OK.”

Butte County plans to file a lawsuit over the plan to bury a pair of tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to move Sacramento River water south. County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to file the suit against the Department of Water Resources over the so-called “California WaterFix,” the largest part of which is the “twin tunnels” proposal. The California WaterFix is technically a Habitat Conservation Plan and Natural Community Conservation Plan, with the stated goal of protecting more than 50 species of fish, wildlife and plants over 50 years.

Consider a couple of scenarios for big trouble at Oroville Dam: First: The facility’s main concrete spillway suffers serious damage, resulting in erosion of the rock beneath it — and potentially threatening the safety of the dam itself. Second: Water fills Lake Oroville, the gigantic reservoir behind the dam, and begins surging down a steep unpaved hillside that’s meant to serve as an emergency spillway. The slope suffers serious erosion, again potentially threatening the dam’s safety.

California’s Tulare Lake was once the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi River. Located at the southern tip of the San Joaquin Valley, it collected snowmelt from dozens of Sierra Nevada streams. Today, the giant lake is long gone: In the decades after the Gold Rush, it was drained and transformed into farmland. Now, in a modern era of water scarcity, some are eager to see even a small bit of the old Tulare Lake restored. It could be an effective way to recharge groundwater that’s been overtapped by those same farms.

Thanks to a stormy winter, California’s long drought is over says state government. But California’s man-made drought will continue as long as Sacramento misallocates our water supply. Maybe it’s time to appeal to a higher but distant authority. When Gov. Jerry Brown declared in April that the six-year “drought emergency is over,” he didn’t seem like a man relieved. Maybe because what followed was a weary caveat. “The next drought could be around the corner,” he said. “Conservation must remain a way of life.”