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

Rain or snow? Observers help scientists understand wintry weather

With a free app, volunteers gather crucial data on what type of precipitation is falling

As Colorado ramps up PFAS drinking water tests, small towns brace for costly fixes

Renee Hoffman was never thrilled about the water quality at her house in Sleepy Bear Mobile Home Park on the outskirts of Steamboat Springs. “It just didn’t taste great,” she...

At Phoenix’s far edge, a housing boom grasps for water

BUCKEYE, Ariz. – Beneath the exhausting Sonoran sun, an hour’s drive west of Phoenix, heavy machines are methodically scraping the desert bare. Where mesquite and saguaro once stood, the former...

Videos: Taos Box rafting on Rio Grande, June 2023

This page in our free multimedia library features GoPro video of a rafting trip through the Taos Box on the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico. This entry also...

Wyoming’s Colorado River water rights in jeopardy without improved info, official warns

Wyoming’s water chief wants emergency funds for hydrologists to measure flows in the state’s portion of the troubled Colorado River Basin, documentation he said is vital to preserving irrigation...

An illustrated glossary of snow-related terms

Learn the lingo of the cryosphere
Ute Water Assistant Manager Greg Williams shows a map where the domestic water provider plans to build Buzzard Creek Reservoir and Owens Creek Reservoir. Cities, conservancy districts, energy companies and private citizens have conditional water rights to build 99 new reservoirs over 5,000 acre-feet on the Western Slope. Photo by William Woody

Colorado has big dreams to use more water from the Colorado River. But will...

The site where Ute Water plans to build Owens Creek Reservoir at 8,200 feet on the Grand Mesa was snow covered by mid-November. The Western Slope’s largest domestic water...

Brackish groundwater is no easy water solution for Arizona

Deep below Arizona sit large volumes of water that are less salty than the ocean, but not easily used. If it were all pumped to the surface and purified, this brackish groundwater would supply Arizona’s water needs for a century or more. Problem is, it can’t all be pumped.

Tip sheet: monitoring the West’s snowpack

What’s the current state of the snowpack? How have conditions changed over the season?

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...