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A Butte County farmer Wednesday filed a $15 million claim with the state over the crisis at Oroville Dam, saying water rushing down the Feather River wiped out part of a walnut orchard. The claim was filed by JEM Farms and Chandon Ranch, which run a 2,000-acre walnut farm downstream of the dam. Farmers along the Feather complained earlier this year that dramatic fluctuations in water flows from the dam in the aftermath of the February crisis caused damage to properties as riverbanks caved in.

On the assumption that one year of heavy rainfall hasn’t erased Californians’ memories of the severe drought that preceded it, state lawmakers and other proponents have drafted measures that could go before California voters in 2018, seeking investments in various projects dealing with water and the environment. Four new bond proposals pertaining to water and the environment have been filed with the state or are currently pending in the state Legislature. California Farm Bureau Federation Director of Water Resources Danny Merkley, who is analyzing the proposals, said they contain resources intended to address a variety of California water challenges.

California was one of the last states in the West to pass a law to manage groundwater. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act into law in 2014. The first major hurdle under the law was determining who would manage groundwater basins. The law required the formation of local governing agencies, known as “Groundwater Sustainability Agencies” or GSA’s. Landowners, public agencies, counties or other groundwater users in the basin could form GSA’s. They had until June 30 to complete the process.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is opposing a company’s proposal to pump groundwater in the Mojave Desert and sell it to Southern California cities. The L.A. water utility’s board weighed in against the project on Tuesday, recommending to Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City Council that they support a bill in the state Legislature requiring California to review the environmental impacts of the proposal.

Drone video released by the California Department of Water Resources shows how repairs are moving along at the Oroville Dam’s main spillway, which crumbled during the extremely wet winter and forced the evacuation of 180,000 people. The video of crews laying down and compacting concrete (set to soothing music) was posted to the department’s YouTube page, where it regularly shares updates on the construction progress.   Reconstruction of the main spillway is on track to be completed by Nov. 1, 2017, in time for California’s rainiest months. Since the spillway’s erosion in February, crews have been working to remove and rebuild 2,270 feet of the spillway.