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

Calls grow for statewide water conservation standards; some cities skeptical

With a warming climate continuing to rob streams and rivers of their flows, talk in Colorado has resumed about how to limit growing water demand for residential use.

Voters overwhelmingly pass Colorado River District tax hike

Western Slope voters have overwhelmingly passed a proposal by the Colorado River Water Conservation District to raise property taxes across its 15-county region.

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...

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.

Colorado OKs drinking treated wastewater; now to convince the public it’s a good idea

Colorado joins three other states in approving a new rule that clears the way for drinking treated wastewater.
Arizona Public Media

Video: The vanishing vaquita

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

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,...
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.
inspectors testa new landscape watering system in Castle Rock

Douglas County Commissioners to head to San Luis Valley for water export meetings

Douglas County Commissioners will travel to Colorado’s San Luis Valley to hear public opinions on exporting farm water to the Front Range.
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.