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

Denver developer, former governor make $118M play for San Luis Valley water

A well-connected metro Denver water developer is proposing to export millions of gallons of water from the San Luis Valley to Douglas County.

Video: Five years after the Gold King Mine spill

Environmental correspondent Laura Paskus revisits the Gold King Mine spill and the destructive impact of the toxic orange plume that went flowing down the Animas and San Juan rivers five years ago.
Lake Powell photo

Working within Colorado River’s 1922 water compact for 21st century focus of annual meeting

Water leaders from each of the Colorado River basin states will soon meet for the annual Colorado River Water Users Association Conference.

Troubled waters

Confronted with the specter of a New Mexico parched by climate change, some have begun to push back against a water model that focuses primarily on putting as much water to use as possible.

Upper Colorado River states add muscle as decisions loom on the shrinking river’s future

Upper basin states seek added leverage to protect their river shares amid difficult talks with California and the lower basin

Colorado regulators’ effort to fast-track Clean Water Act replacement legislation fails

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.

Photos: University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research

This page contains photos from the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research in the University of Arizona’s College of Science. The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research is a global hub of dendrochronology: the...

Questions simmer about Lake Powell’s future as drought, climate change point to a drier...

Lake Powell faces demands from stakeholders with different water needs as runoff is forecast to decline due to warmer, drier conditions.
Grand County rancher collects hay samples

These hay fields may know something we don’t: how to save the Colorado River

A $1 million science experiment on Colorado hay fields is backed by powerful water groups, farm interests, and environmentalists.
A lush lawn outside a home in a Thornton, Colo. subdivision photo

Turf replacement bill gains ground

Colorado could soon have a program that would pay property owners to get rid of one of the largest water uses for Western Slope water providers: grass.