Drive for nuclear power boosts uranium industry — and tribal health concerns in Southwest
For decades, a Utah uranium mill has sparked debate over whether radioactive contamination threatens human health by getting into the water and the air.
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...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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.
Utah’s Suicide Pact With the Fossil Fuel Industry
The state’s fixation on oil and gas development threatens the Colorado River watershed.
State inspections lag for New Mexico’s primary drinking water source
New Mexico is behind in water inspections for the third year in a row, leaving water quality in question.