Stories

A study indicates that if Front Range cities band together to build a large-scale water reuse and delivery system, water sufficient to serve 100,000 homes could be developed.

It’s hard to generate money from a sports-betting tax when COVID-19 has removed athletes from the fields, courts and stadiums where they normally play.

The Water Desk spoke with Rebecca Watson and John Leshy, who visited the University of Colorado Boulder campus recently for an armchair debate hosted by the Getches-Wilkinson Center.

Voluntary agreements in California have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state regulators.

A multibillion-dollar reservoir and pipeline project may one day pull more than 50,000 acre-feet of water per year from the South Platte River.

Colorado enacted five major pieces of water legislation, including providing more water for environmental flows and studying how to limit water speculation.

Water managers and experts from across Colorado are investigating the feasibility of a voluntary, temporary and compensated water-use-reduction program.

In studying what led to this historic avalanche cycle, snow scientists are identifying some elements — such as warmer temperatures, wetter air and snow, and more-intense storms — that are consistent with a warming climate.

The combination of groundwater pumping and warmer temperatures is shrinking aquifers and lowering water tables in Arizona.

Western states are still able to provide relatively affordable water, but that could change as utilities try to recoup losses associated with the pandemic and begin to pay for the massive repairs and upgrades to their systems that were on the drawing board before COVID-19 struck.