Colorado

In a pilot project in Colorado, farmers are reducing irrigation on their hay fields and monitoring the results, to learn if they can send more water down the Colorado...

The alternative management planning process came about after the BLM in 2007 found that 54 miles of the upper Colorado River were eligible for a federal Wild and Scenic River designation.

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.

The snowpack that 40 million people rely on for water was supposed to provide a bounty this year. Instead, much of it melted away fast and early — part of a long-term trend associated with climate change.

At the heart of a potential program is a reduction in water use in an attempt to send up to 500,000 acre-feet downstream to Lake Powell to bolster thereservoir and meet 1922 Colorado River Compact obligations.

The vast majority of comments received by the agency opposed the proposed dam and reservoir in Western Colorado.

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.

Some water experts say preserving these pre-compact water rights, even though they aren’t being used, could give Colorado stronger footing in potential negotiations with Lower Basin states by propping up Colorado’s consumptive-use tally on paper.

Part of a series by Aspen Journalism, KUNC, KJZZ and The Nevada Independent exploring how investors are banking on the West’s water scarcity.