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

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...

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.

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.

Diverting the Rio Grande into a grown-over, decades-old canal could cut New Mexico’s water...

New Mexico once again owes Texas a massive water debt, so water managers are considering resurrecting the original purpose of the channel.

Colorado River farm fallowing pilot moves forward, with approvals slated for next month

Farmers and ranchers in Colorado have submitted proposals to help restore the Colorado River, but the impacts remain uncertain.

White River call ‘significant’ for water users

The Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District placed a call for its water rights, which could potentially alter the system for other water users.