UPDATE, Dec. 21, 2015: Voting is now complete. The question that earned the most audience votes is: How much does water cost, and what is its actual value? What are the economic and political factors that go into how water is priced? 

Read the answer from reporter Lance Williams here. You can read more answers to readers’ drought questions here.

For all our reporting on the secrets of California’s historic drought, we know there still are many stones left unturned. So a few weeks ago, we asked readers to weigh in by sending questions we should investigate about the state’s ongoing water crisis.

And you did: We’ve received more than 80 inquiries on a range of topics surrounding the drought – everything from residential water use to desalination and the actual monetary value of water.

After consulting our reporters, we narrowed the questions down to our top three, featured below. For the next two weeks, we’re putting them to an audience vote. Which question do you most want our reporters to answer? After we tally the results, we’ll assign the winning question to a reporter and start digging.

We also received several requests for information that we can answer more quickly. Stay tuned for a separate story that offers insight into some of those inquiries as we gather votes for the questions below. And to stay on top of our findings, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

This voting round is now complete. Stay tuned as we investigate the winning question.

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Byard Duncan is a reporter and producer for  engagement and collaborations for Reveal. He manages Reveal’s Reporting Networks, which provide more than 1,000 local journalists across the U.S. with resources and training to continue Reveal investigations in their communities. He also helps lead audience engagement initiatives around Reveal’s stories and assists local reporters in elevating their work to a national platform. In addition to Reveal, Duncan’s work has appeared in GQ, Esquire, The California Sunday Magazine and Columbia Journalism Review, among other outlets. He was part of Reveal’s Behind the Smiles project team, which was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2019. He is the recipient of two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a National Headliner Award, an Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, and two first-place awards for feature storytelling from the Society of Professional Journalists and Best of the West. Duncan is based in Reveal's Emeryville, California, office.