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

The Supreme Court shrunk clean water protections in the West. Colorado and New Mexico...

In dry, western Colorado, near the town of Glade Park, a high-elevation meadow is surrounded by aspens and firs. The grass is surprisingly bright green. That’s a clue, said...

As data centers flood Wyoming, water pollution fouls good faith

Evanston and Wheatland are two of the latest sites to be eyed for thousands of acres of industrial parks expected to employ thousands of workers.

As a Colorado aquifer runs low, dangerous heavy metals threaten rural communities’ drinking water

In the San Luis Valley, the ongoing megadrought and a record-low snowpack are draining groundwater and increasing its concentrations of toxic metals. There are few protections for residents drinking from private wells.

Low reservoir levels main cause of toxic algae in Blue Mesa

More releases to prop up Lake Powell could be coming

Wyoming’s crowded Lonesome Lake tops EPA’s national survey for fecal contamination

LONESOME LAKE, WYOMING—Whit Coleman belly flopped with style into some of Wyoming’s most famous alpine waters on a summer day. Out on a father-son backpacking trip with friends, the Salt...

As Colorado ramps up PFAS drinking water tests, small towns brace for costly fixes

Renee Hoffman was never thrilled about the water quality at her house in Sleepy Bear Mobile Home Park on the outskirts of Steamboat Springs. “It just didn’t taste great,” she...

Denver Water is halfway through replacing lead pipes. Why didn’t this happen sooner?

On an early morning, a quiet Denver neighborhood was temporarily transformed into a construction zone. A boring machine on the road outside someone’s home pointed a long, thin drill...

Scientists Warned of a Salton Sea Disaster. No One Listened.

California’s Salton Sea offers a tableau of dead wildlife, toxic dust, and neglect. It was long in the making.

Once ‘paradise,’ parched Colorado valley grapples with arsenic in water

Decades of climate change-driven drought, combined with the overpumping of aquifers, is making the valley desperately dry — and appears to be intensifying the levels of heavy metals in drinking water.

How Hudbay’s Santa Rita mining will impact Southern Arizona’s waterways

The proposed Copper World Complex mine is carving roads and berms that will impact wildlife and waterflow.