Hundreds of firefighters continued to battle a wildfire in the Sespe Wilderness north of Ojai on Sunday with no containment in sight.

The Pine fire started Thursday morning about 11 miles north of Ojai. As of Sunday morning, the fire had consumed 1,590 acres and was threatening 50 structures, said Helen Tarbet with the Los Padres National Forest. The area’s “very remote and steep and rugged terrain” has made it difficult for the more than 350 fire personnel to get a handle on the blaze, Tarbet said. The fire could be partially contained by Sunday night.

Californians are so used to bad news on the water front — from lengthy droughts to soaring water rates — that any good news seems particularly welcome. That’s certainly the case with a Stanford University study showing that the parched Central Valley has three times as much groundwater as previously assumed.

Researchers Mary Kang and Robert Jackson found the water in areas 1,000 to 3,000 feet underground, going much deeper than normal surveys.

The California Natural Resource Agency is holding workshops to explain what’s being done to save the shrinking Salton Sea, and the agency is open to hearing ideas from the public.

Recently the California state budget allocated more than $80 million for projects to save California’s largest lake from turning into a major health hazard. Dozens of people showed up for the Salton Sea Management public workshop at the Coachella Valley Water District headquarters on Thursday night. Some people came with questions on what’s being done to save the Salton Sea.

The latest skirmish in the water wars asks the cryptic question: When is water not really water?

The answer, it seems, is when words in an 83-year-old law – a law conceived long before the notion that recycled sewage was anything but disgusting – essentially negate its existence. Such is the root of the latest conflict between two Orange County water giants. The rich and powerful Irvine Ranch Water District is suing the lord and master of Orange County’s groundwater basin, the Orange County Water District.

It’s something that’s in the news a lot these days: Water-wise landscaping. But what exactly does that mean for San Diegans and how do you know what plants will work for this kind of gardening?

Recently, the San Diego County Water Authority updated its informative brochure, “Nifty 50 Plants for WaterSmart Landscapes,” which is packed with information about a variety of plants and trees that will work in San Diego’s drought environment. The best part is that the brochure is available for free at watersmartsd.org.