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The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and two other western water agencies will take part in a federal program that solicits ideas for water-saving devices and technologies and awards grants to develop them, officials announced Wednesday.

Also taking part in the innovative Conservation Program — a project of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — are the Central Arizona Project and Southern Nevada Water Authority. Southern California Gas Co. also participates in the program.

Although Southern California has experienced several recent storms, including one just last week, such is simply a drop in the bucket when it comes to the state’s ongoing drought, experts say.

In Northern California, the snowpack is 110 percent of what it usually is this time of year. Everywhere else, it is 75 percent.

With those numbers, though, some are wondering whether it’s time to start easing up on the state’s water conservation measures.

Not so fast, says CBS2 Chief Meteorologist Josh Rubenstein.

Ever since a series of winter storms began dumping rain and snow in Northern California last year, officials have been looking for tangible signs that all those storms were making a dent in the state’s four-year drought.

This week delivered some pretty powerful evidence. The latest storms over the weekend pushed California’s biggest reservoir past its historical average for mid-March and put the second-largest one at its historical average, officials said. The rising reservoirs, along with growing snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, are important because both are key sources of water for California.

California state law requires public records to be made promptly available, and allows 10 days to respond in certain siuations, plus another 14 for more limited circumstances. But in practice, the process can take a lot longer, U-T Watchdog found in a project to mark the nationwide open government event known as Sunshine Week.

Citing potentially higher costs that would be passed on to customers, Orange County’s largest provider of water to homes and businesses is intensifying its opposition to a key supplier’s plan to buy desalinated water from a proposed $1 billion Huntington Beach plant.