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...
Holding out hope on the drying Rio Grande
Reporting supported with a grant from The Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder's Center for Environmental Journalism. Aerial photography support provided by LightHawk.
FAR WEST TEXAS—The year was...
Farmers use the majority of Colorado’s water. Shouldn’t they bear the burden of future...
You’ve heard the news: Farmers and ranchers use roughly 80% of the water in Colorado and much of the American West.
So doesn’t it make sense that if growers and...
Colorado’s water users are told “use it or lose it.” But is the threat...
In December 2020, the Summit County Open Space and Trails Department bought a 15-acre property with a small pond, three ditches and a well.
Known as the Shane Gulch property,...
Using less of the Colorado River takes a willing farmer and $45 million in...
Wyoming native Leslie Hagenstein lives on the ranch where she grew up and remembers her grandmother and father delivering milk in glass bottles from the family’s Mount Airy Dairy.
The...
Water flux and toxic wells – Water Buffs Podcast ep. 12 – Kathy James
On this episode of Water Buffs, we examine how drought can harm human health, specifically how dramatic fluctuations in water availability can lead to increasingly toxic water supplies.
Once ‘paradise,’ parched Colorado valley grapples with arsenic in water
Decades of climate change-driven drought, combined with the overpumping of aquifers, is making the valley desperately dry — and appears to be intensifying the levels of heavy metals in drinking water.
Renegade rancher
40 million people rely on the Colorado River system for water and power. But after 20 years of drought, the river basin is running low. For the Water Desk,...
An Arizona water story where ranchers, environmentalists and developers are collaborating
A nonprofit trust is in the middle of a five-phase campaign to purchase and protect Sopori Creek and Farm and its larger watershed and habitat.
Farmers weigh tough choices as uncertain water future looms
With unpredictable water resources, farmers in New Mexico must gamble in order to keep their agricultural production viable.