Utah

The Ute Indian Tribe is suing to get back its water and asserting that the misappropriation is one of a decades-long string of racially motivated schemes to deprive it of its rights and property.

By Brian Maffly and Mark Eddington, The Salt Lake Tribune   This article is the first in a series supported by The Water Desk, an independent journalism initiative based at the University of Colorado...

As the Southwest faces rapid growth and unrelenting drought, the Colorado River is in crisis, with too many demands on its diminishing flow. Now those who depend on the river must confront the hard reality that their supply of Colorado water may be cut off.

In an effort to prop up water levels at Lake Powell, water managers are negatively impacting recreation on Colorado’s biggest man-made lake. 

The state’s fixation on oil and gas development threatens the Colorado River watershed.

With the Southwest locked in a 19-year drought and climate change making the region increasingly drier, water managers and users along the Colorado River are facing a troubling question: Are we in a new, more arid era when there will never be enough water?

A powerful group that steers Utah’s water policy keeps pushing for costly infrastructure over meaningful conservation efforts.

Communities along the Colorado River are facing a new era of drought and water shortages that is threatening their future. With an official water emergency declaration now possible, farmers, ranchers, and towns are searching for ways to use less water and survive.

A majority of survey respondents said they support the project but don’t want to pay for it and would conserve more water in order to avoid it.

The Colorado River has been dammed, diverted, and slowed by reservoirs, strangling the life out of a once-thriving ecosystem. But in the U.S. and Mexico, efforts are underway to revive sections of the river and restore vital riparian habitat for native plants, fish, and wildlife.