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Homeowners who let their grass go brown to save money during the drought may have to turn the sprinklers back on, or else their HOA can fine them. In April, Gov. Jerry Brown declared the drought over for most parts of California, lifting restrictions that kept homeowners associations from disciplining residents who stopped watering their grass to help save money and water. However, those days are over, and HOAs are starting to require families to make all their grass green again.

The push for alternative energy sources has led the San Diego County Water Authority to consider a new possibility — floating solar panels on the surface of the agency’s only reservoir.

The 20-acre installation proposed for the Olivenhain Reservoir near Escondido would be the first in Southern California, although several floating panel projects are underway in Northern California and in Japan.

The San Diego County Water Authority announced Thursday that staff is recommending a 3.7 percent hike in the amount of money local cities and districts pay for water in the 2018 calendar year. The authority said most of the increase was due to the price of imported water from the Metropolitan Water District, the primary wholesaler in California, and Colorado River. The SDCWA takes imported water and collected local rainfall and distributes it to local agencies like the city of San Diego, Helix Water District and the like, which sends the product on to homes and businesses.

Water rates in San Diego County could increase next year, if a proposed rate hike is approved. The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) is pushing for a 3.7 percent rate hike 2018. On Thursday, SDCWA announced it will recommend increasing rates charged to its member agencies for both treated and untreated water. The hike is party to offset higher rates and charges from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD).

Even though it’s rained more than normal across California, most of San Diego’s reservoirs are still not full. About 41 percent of the storage space in these artificial lakes remains empty. Most of this is just the way things are in San Diego. Here, most of the region’s drinking water comes from the Colorado River and the melted snow of Northern California. Only about 5 percent of urban San Diego’s water comes from local rainfall.