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While most wish the rain would go away after a soggy, flood-filled weather season, there are pluses — namely huge gains in water to help with the pesky drought that has been hanging around for half the decade. One of the most impressive gains of the season happened late last year, when NOAA found that Lake Tahoe added 8,690,131,707 gallons of fresh water between Dec. 9 and 11. If you’re trying to picture just how much water that is, here’s a handy fact: it’s the same amount as filling 13,158 Olympic-sized swimming pools, Forbes reported.

Combining $3 million each from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) have made possible a $6 million pilot grant program for joint applications involving funding for both agricultural water suppliers and agricultural operations.  The grant funding provided in this joint program is intended to address multiple goals including: 1) water use efficiency, conservation and reduction, 2) greenhouse gas emission reductions, 3) groundwater protection, and 4) sustainability of agricultural operations and food production.

Water advocacy leaders in California are calling for the state government to permanently invest in water infrastructure–noting that over 300 California communities are affected by unsafe drinking water. Among the chemicals found in the drinking water of these communities are uranium, nitrates, and arsenic. Jennifer Clary from Clean Water Action said during a statewide conference call this week that agricultural communities on the Central Coast specifically are breeding ground for nitrates. “In Monterey County, about 40 percent of the private wells that have been tested over the last two years have exceeded the nitrate standards,” Clary said.