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

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...

Mobile-home residents stuck in a regulatory roundabout

It's unclear whether a new law could improve water quality in the Eagle River Village park, but legislators want to pressure owners to do more.
Part of the mining operations at the marble quarry as seen from a path above the quarry in September 2021. The quarry operators will have to comply with 10 special conditions as part of their permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Marble quarry must build bridge, culvert and improve stream for Clean Water Act violation

Colorado Stone Quarries must rehabilitate streams they illegally diverted in 2018, but some say even more needs to be done.

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 lawmakers propose millions in funding to slash groundwater use; curb water profiteering

New legislation could help water-strapped regions of the state meet their obligations to deliver water to Kansas, New Mexico and Texas.

Utah’s Suicide Pact With the Fossil Fuel Industry

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

Amid a withering drought, New Mexico leaders struggle to plan for life with less...

New Mexico faces tough choices as a dire and historic drought continues and the Rio Grande is unable to give everyone what they want or need.

Arizona’s future water shock

Smaller cities. Soaring water prices. Scorched desert towns.

Meet the veteran insider who’s shepherding Gov. Newsom’s plan to bring climate resilience to...

Former journalist Nancy Vogel explains how the draft California Water Resilience Portfolio came together and why it’s expected to guide future state decisions
Colorado stream photo 1

Special Report: Colorado launches major new series of stream protections

The process of protecting environmental flows takes an important step forward as three laws passed in 2020 start to take effect this year.