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Some state water officials are on a drought listening tour. On Monday, they listened to local water agency representatives and elected leaders during an afternoon meeting at Santa Barbara County’s office of emergency services.

Instead of competing for water their goal is to work together as a region to get state and federal funding for water projects. State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson said people in the county need to be “rowing in the same direction.”

A rapidly rising Sacramento River washes trees and junk down river. The Sacramento Yacht Club is preparing for the rise.

Reflecting problems at other aging reservoirs, a $200 million project to drain and repair one of the Bay Area’s largest dams to reduce the risk of it collapsing in a major earthquake will double in cost and be delayed by at least two more years.

Managers at the Santa Clara Valley Water District, based in San Jose, had hoped to start construction in early 2018 on the seismic upgrade work at Anderson Dam, a 240-foot-high earthen dam that sits east of Highway 101 between San Jose and Morgan Hill.

Fights over water are the norm but the successful water bill that passed Congress last week with a rider provision for California may upset the old standard that water is for fighting and whiskey is for drinking. The bill will divert runoff water to parched farms and set up storage, desalination and recycling programs in California. The overall measure sailed through the House and Senate despite opposition from California’s junior senator, Barbara Boxer, and now awaits the president’s signature.