Aridification

The snowpack that 40 million people rely on for water was supposed to provide a bounty this year. Instead, much of it melted away fast and early — part of a long-term trend associated with climate change.

Cities in New Mexico and Colorado are juggling water scarcity concerns over the Rio Grande.

Once criticized for being a profligate user of water, fast-growing Phoenix has taken some major steps — including banking water in underground reservoirs, slashing per-capita use, and recycling wastewater — in anticipation of the day when the flow from the Colorado River ends.

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?

In the rural towns around Visalia, drought is a perpetual plight and wells are going dry.

In the 1960s, Glen Canyon Dam created Lake Powell, the 186-mile-long reservoir intended to store Colorado River flows from the Rocky Mountains. With the flows reduced by drought and...

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

There’s desperation in the desert – for communities that could run out of water if the Colorado River keeps shrinking from overuse and climate change. Many are now looking...

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.

Scientists fear that eventually the toxic residue of more than a century of agricultural runoff will be blown into the air — and into the lungs of residents.