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

Chatfield Reservoir’s $171M redo complete, with new storage for Front Range cities, farmers

Chatfield Reservoir, one of the largest liquid playgrounds in the Denver metro area, will now store water under a $171 million deal.

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...

Water confab: Colorado politicos call for more water storage, smart growth

Politicians and water officials gathered to discuss Colorado's water issues and creating more reservoir storage.
Liza Mitchell, a natural resource planner and ecologist with Pitkin County, shows off the recent work on a restoration project at a fen on North Star Nature Preserve, on Aug. 26. This fiber mat is plugging an old ditch that drained water from the wetland to the Roaring Fork River.

Pitkin County launches project to restore ancient wetland at North Star Preserve near Aspen

A fen-restoration project aims to enhance the wetland’s ability to provide habitat, store and filter groundwater, and sequester carbon.

Less federal pressure, worsening drought, and more interstate tension loom over Colorado River talks

The Colorado River Basin is in crisis.  Climate change is reducing its flow and its biggest reservoirs are shrinking. The seven U.S. states that use the river are negotiating cutbacks...
Morrisania Mesa Ditch photo

Popular ditch inventories remain private despite being publicly funded

Is Colorado’s most precious resource a public good or a private property right?

New era? Western cities using wetland parks, stormwater capture and mobile wastewater collection

Western cities are using new tactics to address shrinking water supplies due to drought and population growth.

Some Western cities offer residents “cash for grass” to reduce irrigation

A study in 2016 showed that lawns are the largest irrigated crop in America.

Feds call for more water recycling, conservation as Colorado River deteriorates

Water recycling, conservation programs and repair of leaky reservoirs and pipelines will help restore the Colorado River, according to federal officials.

At Phoenix’s far edge, a housing boom grasps for water

BUCKEYE, Ariz. – Beneath the exhausting Sonoran sun, an hour’s drive west of Phoenix, heavy machines are methodically scraping the desert bare. Where mesquite and saguaro once stood, the former...