An initiative of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder

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Denver Water is halfway through replacing lead pipes. Why didn’t this happen sooner?

On an early morning, a quiet Denver neighborhood was temporarily transformed into a construction zone. A boring machine on the road outside someone’s home pointed a long, thin drill...

Holding out hope on the drying Rio Grande

Reporting supported with a grant from The Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder's Center for Environmental Journalism. Aerial photography support provided by LightHawk.  FAR WEST TEXAS—The year was...

Post-fire study finds snowpack melts earlier

Loss of forest canopy and deposition of ash alter forest hydrology

Scientists seeking answers about Mars look to the Colorado River’s canyons

Ancient rainstorms may have sculpted the red planet, similar to the monsoon rains that helped shape the Southwest’s landscape.
A man dives into a clear mountain lake from a rocky cliff. The lake is ringed with pine trees.

In “Water Bodies,” Western writers tap into intimate connections to their local waterways

In the arid West, water verbs are often bureaucratic. Rivers, streams and lakes are allocated, decreed, diverted, divided and used. Droplets are distributed to serve human needs. Scarcity drives...

Desalination helps meet water shortfalls in parts of the world. Is it a viable...

State Sen. Kevin Priola traveled to Israel in 2022 and came away with an idea: If the arid country can produce drinking water by taking the salt out of...

Farmers use the majority of Colorado’s water. Shouldn’t they bear the burden of future...

You’ve heard the news: Farmers and ranchers use roughly 80% of the water in Colorado and much of the American West. So doesn’t it make sense that if growers and...

Colorado’s water users are told “use it or lose it.” But is the threat...

In December 2020, the Summit County Open Space and Trails Department bought a 15-acre property with a small pond, three ditches and a well.  Known as the Shane Gulch property,...

Why don’t we just fix the Colorado River crisis by piping in water from...

The Colorado River is a lifeline for about 40 million people across the Southwest. It supplies major cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Denver and a multibillion-dollar agriculture industry...

Cities in the West are booming in population. Will they need a lot more...

When researcher Brian Richter set out to take a close look at how big cities in the Western U.S. were adapting to water scarcity, he already knew the story’s...