Fresh Water News

Nearly one year after the state ordered Yampa River water users to begin measuring their diversions from the iconic river, local community groups have raised more than $200,000 to help cash-strapped ranchers and others install the devices needed to comply with the law.

Forty years after the Holy Cross Wilderness Area was created, an effort to explore tapping its water has generated more than 500 public comments.

Colorado water quality regulators’ attempt to fast-track new rules shielding streams left unprotected by changes to the Clean Water Act was abandoned earlier this month after it failed to win support from lawmakers.

State lawmakers sought to cut $3.3 billion from water programs to compensate for one of the largest deficits in its history.

Chatfield Reservoir, one of the largest liquid playgrounds in the Denver metro area, will now store water under a $171 million deal.

Though many agricultural interests and water utilities support the new Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule, as it is known, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Patrick Pfaltzgraff, director of the state’s Water Quality Control Division, said they will take legal action to protect streams that are no longer subject to federal oversight.

A new thawing technology aims to help restaurants cut their water use, reduce their operating costs and shrink their carbon footprint.

The water once used to cool coal-fired power plants could soon be available for other uses, even to help fill a new drought-protection pool in Lake Powell.

While snowpack and reservoirs are strong, forecasts for streamflows, which build as melting snow reaches streams, are expected to be below normal across southwestern and southeastern parts of the state.

Colorado’s virus-related restrictions are forcing commercial rafting companies to create social distance on unruly rivers and face the potential for smaller crowds.