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

Arizona Public Media

Video: The vanishing vaquita

Should Colorado River water be used to grow alfalfa or subdivisions in the Phoenix metropolitan area?

High marks and worries on home water conservation: Is Colorado’s effort stalling?

A new analysis of residential water use by Fresh Water News shows Colorado's statewide savings from water conservation in recent years may have stalled out.
City Park in Denver

Even in a pandemic, drought drives water use along the Front Range

Municipal water providers saw commercial water use plummet at the beginning of the pandemic but those savings were erased once the hot summer rolled in.

New Rules

As climate change and overuse reduce water supplies, the gap between “paper water” (the legal right to use water) and “actual water” (what’s available) is widening.
River kayaking photo

Conservation groups want recreation water right tied to natural river features

Three conservation groups in Colorado are working on a revision to a state law that would allow natural river features to get a water right.
Big beaches are growing, and stabilizing, along the Colorado River in Cataract Canyon just above Lake Powell, like this one captured in early October. A recent study on the secondary economic impacts of a water-use-reduction program intended to deliver more water to Lake Powell found some jobs could be lost across western Colorado.

Study finds small number of jobs lost under demand-management program

A recent study of a Colorado demand-management program found that the benefits would be comparable to the negative secondary impacts.
Grand Canyon National Park photo

Proposed Tusayan development threatens Grand Canyon National Park

As a developer seeks an easement in the Kaibab National Forest, the character of surrounding towns and parks could drastically change.
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.

Unanswered questions: New Mexico looks to fossil fuel byproduct to ease pressure on freshwater...

Mario Atencio’s family never received a notification that 1,100 barrels of produced water—a byproduct of oil and gas extraction—had spilled on their allotment in February 2019 near Counselor, New...

Colorado squeezing water from urban landscapes

Pace of transition has accelerated, deepened and broadened