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Amid Wet Winter, Coalition Seeks End To California Drought Emergency

FRESNO (CBS / AP) -- A coalition of state and local leaders is pressing California to lift restrictions on urban water use in the wettest winter for years to drench the state.

Republican State Sen. Jim Nielsen of Northern California said Tuesday that he wants Gov. Jerry Brown to end a 3-year-old drought emergency.

State water regulators in Sacramento on Wednesday will consider a recommendation to extend the drought regulations at least through spring.

Officials in Marin County say the latest storms caused a creek to flood 40 homes. A rockslide closed part of a highway through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Despite the wet weather, Tracy Quinn of the Natural Resources Defense Council says the drought rules should stay put.

She says nobody knows if this wet year could be followed by more years of harsh drought.

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