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Will it happen every year? That question hangs in the air as Lake County residents suffer through catastrophic wildfire for the fourth time in two years. This time, the fire is surging even after a relatively wet winter and spring in Northern California. And experts say it’s a reminder that California’s five-year drought has left communities throughout the state vulnerable. “This is coming to you,” said Kevin Cann, a Mariposa County supervisor who has been speaking for rural communities on a statewide forestry commission. “All of this has its roots in the drought.”

A pollutant that has leached into California aquifers since farmers first began using synthetic fertilizer continues to accumulate and would not be removed from groundwater even if the state’s agriculture businesses abruptly quit using nitrogen-based materials to boost the productivity of their crops. That’s one of the themes of a new study from the UC Davis Agriculture Sustainability Institute that assesses the scale and sources of a kind of pollution that can harm infants if it seeps into groundwater and contributes to respiratory problems if it drifts into the air as a gas.

A Northern California wildfire has destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and forced area residents to flee their lake community, authorities said Sunday.The fast-moving Clayton fire broke out late Saturday afternoon off Highway 29 and Clayton Creek Road, forcing the entire community of Lower Lake — located more than 100 miles north of San Francisco — to evacuate, officials said. Extreme hot weather combined with the dry brush allowed the fire to grow overnight, burning about 1,400 acres and destroying four homes, according to Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s misguided tunnel vision on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has taken the focus off other valuable water projects California should be implementing. Unlike the governor’s $17 billion twin-tunnel disaster, Assemblyman Richard Bloom’s AB 2480 would produce additional water for California, improve the state’s environment and help ward off or at least mitigate climate change. It’s a no-brainer of an idea that should have been prioritized years ago. The bill has passed the Assembly and is currently winding its way through the Senate. The Senate should pass the bill and send it to the governor for his signature.