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In the wake of the drought, California has made tremendous progress on climate-smart water solutions. But even as communities are forging ahead with recapture and reuse projects, we are seeing a gold rush of corporate water projects designed to profit off drought fears. Poseidon’s Orange County desalination plant is a prime example. This Wall Street water company and its lobbyists are using every trick in the book to sell their unnecessary and irresponsible project. That is because the billion-dollar boondoggle can’t stand on its own merits.

San Diego launched on Tuesday its application for $1.7 billion in low-interest state loans to pay for an ambitious plan to boost the city’s water independence by recycling treated sewage into drinking water. Seeking such loans will soften hikes in sewer and water rates San Diego officials say will be necessary to pay for the Pure Water recycling system, which is expected to be complete by 2035. The loans are expected to carry interest rates of less than 2 percent, compared to about 5 percent for typical sewer and water projects that aren’t eligible for money from the state’s clean water revolving loan fund.

At least one San Diego leader wants water researchers to start testing city waterways for hepatitis A. Councilman David Alvarez on Thursday penned a letter to the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project requesting that the environmental research group start testing as many as a half-dozen area waterways for the deadly liver infection.

In an about-face, the federal government has given Cadiz Inc. the go-ahead to lay a pipeline for its proposed desert water project in an existing railroad right-of-way. The decision by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management follows other Trump administration moves to eliminate a legal hurdle erected in the company’s path when President Obama was in office.

After Tuesday’s vote by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to participate in a giant water delivery project more than 300 miles to the north, Los Angeles is left to wonder: Are we all in on the delta tunnels and their $17 billion price tag ($4.3 billion for Southern California)? Are we all out? Does Mayor Eric Garcetti have a better alternative, and will he try to stop the tunnels project from moving forward?