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California’s five-year drought was officially declared to be over in April. By many measures, it was the worst drought in the state’s recorded history. And it was brought to an end by one of the wettest single winters ever. As a result, most water agencies across the state have dropped their emergency water conservation rules. And, presumably, life will get back to normal in that interface between people and water. But is the drought really over? And even if it is, should we allow life to return to “normal”?

Padre Dam Municipal Water District received regulatory conceptual approvals for the East County Advanced Water Purification Program from the California State Water Resources Control Board Division of Drinking Water. Additionally, the State Water Resources Control Board awarded Padre Dam $116.2 million as part of the Proposition 1 (Prop 1) Water Recycling Funding Program. The conceptual approval will allow the program to use either Lake Jennings and/or and the Santee Groundwater Basin as an environmental buffer in compliance with existing groundwater recharge regulations and draft regulations on surface water augmentation.

At the north end of Santa Monica Beach, there’s a fenced off 2-acre section that looks a bit unkempt. It’s an experiment in “re-wilding,” or restoring the beach to what it looked like before humans altered it. The pilot project, a partnership of The Bay Foundation and Santa Monica, could also help protect the city from sea level rise. The Bay Foundation first staked out the plot in December 2016, but waited until Tuesday to hold the official ribbon cutting, so visitors could see dune plant seedlings emerging from the sand.

The San Diego County Water Authority hopes to recover more than $250 million in fees it says it was overcharged by the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District. Local water managers already won a lower court ruling. A judge found Metropolitan over-charged San Diego for water during a four-year period. Attorney Dan Purcell was hired by San Diego water managers to litigate the case. He argued the San Diego Water Authority negotiated a long-term contract to buy water from the Imperial Valley, replacing the water they had bought from Metropolitan.

As San Diegans start to crank up their air conditioners, the city and the San Diego County Water Authority are developing a way to store energy by using water. Water officials said it’s expected to save ratepayers money in the long run, according to a May 4 report by the ABC-TV affiliate KGTV San Diego. The city and authority want to build an energy storage facility at the San Vicente Reservoir, about 25 miles northeast of San Diego.