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Wednesday, April 28, was a happy time at Diamond Valley Lake as news spread that rising water levels will enable private boat launching to resume May 18.

The lake’s massive concrete launch ramp, which has a vertical rise similar to an 11-story building, closed a year ago because of low water levels caused by the drought. MWD officials drew the lake down 115 feet below its high-water mark to supply customers during the water shortage. That left the ramp dry.

Los Angeles water wasters could be fined up to $40,000 per month under new regulations created in response to a crushing drought that’s poised to stretch into a fifth year.

Mayor Eric Garcetti signed the new regulations into law Wednesday. They allow the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to fine homeowners between $1,000 and $40,000 for what Garcetti described in a statement as “unreasonable use.”

The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant has been honored with a Global Water Award as the Desalination Plant of the Year for 2016 by Global Water Intelligence, publisher of periodicals for the international water industry.

The award, announced this week at the Global Water Summit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, goes to “the desalination plant, commissioned during 2015, that represents the most impressive technical or ecologically sustainable achievement in the industry.”

Six months ago, regulators with California’s State Water Resources Control Board made an example of four local agencies by slapping them with $61,000 fines for failing to comply with mandatory drought rules requiring reductions in water use.

Now two of those agencies, the Coachella Valley Water District and the Indio Water Authority, have reached deals with the state that will allow them to use the money locally to promote water conservation.

The warning was stern and unequivocal: The days of unkempt, browning lawns in the gated community of Blackhawk were officially over. “We believe that allowing the drought to negatively impact the landscaping at any Blackhawk home does a disservice to property values throughout the community,” the homeowners association announced. “We believe there is no longer any reason that all landscaping in the community cannot flourish as it once did.”

Starting on June 1, any of Blackhawk’s 2,000 homeowners who fail to maintain green lawns or install drought-tolerant landscaping will now risk fines or litigation.