Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Oct. 6, 2016, Sacramento Bee.

The drought persists. This summer was the hottest on record. Last month, a National Weather Service meteorologist called the chance of adequate winter rainfall this year “a crapshoot.”

Farmers in the Central Valley are pumping groundwater like there’s no tomorrow. And they may not be wrong; it’s not for nothing that the rest of the world ratified the Paris climate accord last week.

Thank heaven Californians finally have gotten serious about water conservation – oh, wait.

To the surprise of pretty much no one, state water authorities reported that the state is already backsliding on last year’s efforts to cut water consumption. Savings were only 18 percent below the 2013 baseline level, compared with 27 percent last year.

Read the whole story