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ByScottSmith TheAssociatedPress SACRAMENTO Califor- nia Gov. Jerry Brown de- clared an end to the state's drought emergency on Fri- day after powerful storms quenched the state follow- ing four extraordinarily dry years that drained reser- voirs and wells, devastated forests and farmland and forced millions of people to slash their water use. The turnaround has been stark. After years of brown fields and cracked earth, monster storms blanketed California's Sierra Nevada Mountains this winter with deep snow that flows into the network of rivers and streams that supply much of the state's water. Front lawns revived to bright green in neighbor- hoods throughout the state and rivers that had become dry beds of sand and gravel are now charged with water swelling up in their banks. Still, lifting the order is a largely symbolic mea- sure that doesn't remove most of the restrictions. Of- ficials insisted they're hold- ing onto some conservation rules for the 40 million res- idents of the nation's most populous state. California uses more wa- ter each year than nature makes available, and one wet winter won't change the long-term outlook, en- vironmentalists cautioned. "Water may appear to be in abundance right now," said Kate Poole, director of the Natural Resources De- fense Council. "But even af- ter this unusually wet sea- son, there won't be enough water to satisfy all the de- mands of agriculture, busi- ness and cities, without draining our rivers and groundwater basins below sustainable levels." At the drought's peak, citizens were urged to cut shower times and outdoor watering. Homeowners let lawns turn brown or ripped them out altogether and re- placed them with desert- like landscaping. The drought strained na- tive fish that migrate up riv- ers, killed more than 100 million trees, and forced farmers in the nation's leading agricultural state to rely heavily on ground- water, causing the ground to sink. Some growers tore out orchards. Brown declared the emergency in 2014, and of- ficials later ordered man- datory conservation for the first time in state history. Even now, the governor has kept the drought emer- gency in place for four coun- ties, most of them at the state's farming heartland, where emergency drinking water projects will continue to help address diminished groundwater supplies. More than 900 families mostly in Tulare County, a farming powerhouse in the SanJoaquinValley,arestrug- gling even to find drinking water after their wells dried up and have to turn to chari- tiesforbottledwaterortanks for their yards. In the inland region of Southern California east of Los Angeles, streams and groundwater basins are still at historically low lev- els, and rainfall has been below average for nearly two decades. It would take the equivalent of three con- secutive years of above-av- erage precipitation to refill the basins. The rest of the state shouldn't forget water-sav- ing strategies either. Cities and water districts through- outthestatewillberequired to continue reporting their water use each month, said the governor's order, which alsobanswastefulpractices, such as hosing off sidewalks and running sprinklers when it rains. Water conservation will become a way of life in the state, said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board, who led conserva- tion planning. "This drought has been one for the record books, but it won't be our last or longest," said Marcus. "It's a wakeup call and we can't hit the snooze button." Even Brown was circum- spect in his dramatic an- nouncement: "This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner." CALIFORNIA Brown:Droughtisover,conservationmustgoon RICHPEDRONCELLI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Snow covering the Sierra Nevadas is seen in the background of the PG&E hydroelectric dam at Spaulding Lake in Nevada County. Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to California's historic drought Friday, li ing emergency orders. By Sudhin Thanawala The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Federal prosecutors have charged a former high-ranking of- ficial in California's veter- ans affairs department and seven other people in an in- vestigation of alleged bid rigging on public construc- tion contracts, the U.S. At- torney's Office announced Friday. Prosecutors said the investigation that led to the indictment of Eric Worthen, a former assis- tant deputy secretary in the veterans affairs depart- ment, and the seven other defendants was prompted by an earlier probe that ensnared former Califor- nia state Sen. Leland Yee and San Francisco China- town gang tough Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow. Worthen, 45, and a sec- ond man, Taj Armon Reid, took $12,000 in bribes in exchange for agreeing to help an FBI informant posing as a developer win two state construction contracts — one for resi- dential facilities at a vet- erans' home in Ventura, California and the other to remodel a kitchen at a vet- erans' home in Los Ange- les, according to a federal grand jury indictment filed on Thursday. Court records did not list attorneys for Worthen or Reid, 46. The six other defendants are contractors in the San Francisco Bay Area. They each face fraud charges stemming from bidding on a contract for renovations at a building owned by the U.S. Department of Energy at Lawrence Berkeley Na- tional Laboratory, prosecu- tors said. The bid-rigging probe began after investigators intercepted a phone call in a major organized crime investigation in San Fran- cisco's Chinatown that led to charges against Yee and Chow, prosecutors said. An FBI informant who worked on the Chow case posed as the developer in the bid- rigging investigation, ac- cording to the U.S. Attor- ney's Office. A federal judge sen- tenced Chow to two life terms last year after jurors convicted him of racketeer- ing, murder and scores of other crimes. Yee received a five-year sentence after acknowl- edging in a plea deal that he accepted thousands of dollars in bribes and dis- cussed helping an under- cover FBI agent buy auto- matic weapons from the Philippines. PUBLIC CONTRACTS State official, 7 others charged in construction fraud PETTY OFFICER 3RD CLASS SARAH WILSON — U.S. COAST GUARD The 112-foot freight barge Vengeance is seen a er capsizing near Yerba Buena Island on Friday. The Associated Press SANFRANCISCO Dieselfuel and hydraulic oil are leaking into the San Francisco Bay after powerful winds cap- sized a freight barge near the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge early Friday. Authorities say they are preparing to clean a max- imum of 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 300 gallons of lube oil. The 112-foot barge has a crane and is under contract with Bay Area Rapid Tran- sit. It is positioned near an underwater rail tunnel that carries BART's commuter lines between San Fran- cisco and Oakland, Califor- nia.Thebargeisusedbydiv- ers who do underwater anti- corrosion work on the tube. Fu el , oi l le ak in g fr om sunken barge in SF Bay ENVIRONMENT "Water may appear to be in abundance right now, but even after this unusually wet season, there won't be enough water to satisfy all the demands of agriculture, business and cities." — Kate Poole, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council SecuritiesandadvisoryservicesofferedthroughRegisteredRepresentativesofCeteraAdvisor Networks LLC (doing insurance business in CA as CFGAN Insurance Agency), member FINRA/ SIPC. Some advisory services offered through Sweeney & Michel, LLC. Cetera is under separate ownership from any other named entity. CA Insurance License #: 0H82321 and 0I22683 More than aproduct. More than aportfolio. APartnership. There's nothing more personal than your finacial plan and future, that's why we partner with our clients in the ways that matter most. 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