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Swimsuit. Sunscreen. Skis. You’re ready: Celebrate your independence by schussing the slopes during the longest snow season in California history. While the rest of America has moved on to lawn parties and backyard barbecues, happy skiers are still carving turns through the sweet, sticky pockets of lingering snow in the Sierra Nevada — where weekend lifts are spinning for the ninth straight month, even as temperatures soar to the mid-70s. But California’s snowiest winter on record means major delays — or danger — for equally beloved summer sports such as backpacking, hiking, trail running, kayaking and rafting.

Two federal agencies’ decision Monday to green-light construction of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Delta twin-tunnels plan is an unwelcome setback for opponents of the project. But it’s not the huge milestone that proponents are claiming. The National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opinion merely said that building the tunnels “doesn’t deepen any harm” to several endangered species.  “Deepen” is the key here. In effect, they’re saying that the impact of taking too much water out of the Delta in recent years has been so detrimental that building the tunnels won’t make much difference.

The blaring headlines this week said the biological opinions issued by the federal government gave what could be a final green light to the California WaterFix. Wrong. There is no green light for this $15 billion boondoggle. The agencies only examined phase one, which is limited to the construction of the Delta twin tunnels themselves and the expansion of Clifton Court Forebay – not the project’s real environmental danger of actually moving water through the tunnels. This will require reviews for six more project components – constructing, monitoring, maintaining and mitigating the three intake facilities, as well the water operations plan.

For engineer Christopher Neudeck, the levee reinforcement near Discovery Bay is just one small piece of a giant challenge left by an extraordinary winter. “If that levee were to fail, the lake, the golf course, the commercial area in here, that would all go under water” says Neudeck, pointing to a map of Discovery Bay in his Stockton office. The last time KPIX covered his team at work was mid-winter, repairing a delta levee that almost failed on Tyler Island. Now it’s late June, and a new risk is flowing along California’s levees. The state is experiencing what Neudeck calls a “very unusual year. The snowpack has been really prolonged.”

President Donald Trump’s nomination of a Bureau of Reclamation veteran to head the agency with primary responsibility on the Colorado River won the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton and a cautious reaction from U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, both Republicans. Brenda Burman is an excellent choice with a strong background in Western water issues, Tipton’s office said. Much of the river’s course in Colorado runs through Tipton’s 3rd Congressional district. “There is no question that Ms. Burman has significant expertise and history in Western water issues, particularly in the Colorado River Basin,” Gardner said in a statement.