Colorado communities have spent millions of dollars on whitewater parks. Are they worthwhile?
There’s an old catchphrase that Colorado kayak park proponents used in the early 2000s to sell the idea that keeping water in streams mattered just as much as water...
Colorado has unique protections for river recreation, but do they have enough legal muscle?
David Hajoglou sat on the rocks next to a rushing stretch of river in Golden, Colorado. As he scouted a kayak route through the riffles and waves, he thought...
Data centers a small, but growing factor in Arizona’s water budget
BUCKEYE, Ariz. – It was supposed to be called Cipriani, a master planned community with more than 9,700 homes at the western fringe of this sprawling desert city in...
Dwindling water supply, legal questions push Colorado River into ‘wildly uncharted territory’
Time is ticking for states that share the shrinking Colorado River to negotiate a new set of governing rules. One major sticking point, which has the potential to thrust...
Colorado has big dreams to use more water from the Colorado River. But will...
The site where Ute Water plans to build Owens Creek Reservoir at 8,200 feet on the Grand Mesa was snow covered by mid-November. The Western Slope’s largest domestic water...
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...
Can New Mexico’s Ancient Water System Survive Climate Change?
Traditional irrigation canals, or acequias, could help balance the water supply during droughts — if they are protected.
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...
Q&A: Defining the “snow deluge” and projecting its future
Scientist Adrienne Marshall explains why these extreme snow years are expected to decline in our warming world.
Why atmospheric rivers can be both harmful and helpful
These "rivers in the sky" can cause catastrophic flooding but are also critical for the West's snowpack