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

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Searching for solutions: In New Mexico, researchers seek to make brackish water a viable...

Heading through eastern New Mexico, dairy cattle can be seen in farms beside the highway while flashing lights illuminate the wind farms at night. Large sprinklers irrigate the crop...

Does Arizona have enough water? Phoenix-area cities are spending big to make sure it...

Brett Fleck does not have an easy job. He manages water for a city in the desert. He has to keep taps flowing while facing a complicated equation: The...

Using less of the Colorado River takes a willing farmer and $45 million in...

Wyoming native Leslie Hagenstein lives on the ranch where she grew up and remembers her grandmother and father delivering milk in glass bottles from the family’s Mount Airy Dairy. The...

The Other Border Dispute Is Over an 80-Year-Old Water Treaty

With another hot summer looming, Mexico is behind on its water deliveries to the United States, leading to water cutbacks in South Texas. A little-known federal agency has hit a roadblock in its efforts to get Mexico to comply.

In Colorado, new scrutiny and possible fixes coming for drinking water in mobile home...

A new law gives the state authority to test water quality in mobile home parks and force owners to fix any issues. The testing program officially begins this summer, but state officials have gotten a head start at one community in Western Colorado that helped spur the legislation.

Meet The 28-Year-Old Californian Trying To Save The Colorado River

The Colorado River is in crisis — one of the worst in recorded history. For the past several months, the seven states that use Colorado River water have been trying to come up with a plan to keep the river from collapsing. California is the single largest user of Colorado River water, which means that any effort to save the river involves California making some serious cuts. 

10 visuals that show how climate change is transforming the West’s snow and water...

The latest National Climate Assessment warns of a shrinking snowpack and serious downstream consequences.
A clear Rocky Mountain stream creates riffles through cobblestone at the base of Mount Sopris

In dry years, Colorado’s Crystal River runs at a trickle — but why?

A historic drought driven by climate change and temperatures that creep ever higher are partly to blame, but the factors that lead to a dry river bed are many.

In $100 million Colorado River deal, water and power collide

The purchase represents the culmination of a decades-long effort to keep Shoshone’s water on the west side of Colorado’s mountains, settling the region’s long-held anxieties over competition with the water needs of the Front Range, where fast-growing cities and suburbs around Denver need more water to keep pace with development.

What to watch on the Colorado River in 2024

After years of dry conditions throughout the West, 2023 gave the region’s water managers the greatest gift of all: a hefty snowpack. What will 2024 bring?