Topic: Western Water Coverage

It’s not clear yet how the money would be distributed among several states in a river basin where political fights and an impasse over how to share water long term have persisted even during historic drought.

Earning a spot on the Colorado School of Mines microplastics sampling team on the South Platte River requires careful balancing in waist-deep water and occasionally dodging some very inquisitive Canada Geese.

A federal hydrologist appeared to be momentarily at a loss for words Thursday as he described how dire the latest forecast has gotten for how much water will flow through the Colorado River Basin this summer.

Widespread drought and fears of a power crisis is forcing the Interior Department to start sending billions of gallons of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir downstream to prop up Lake Powell.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, there was only silence and the occasional crunch of rocks as a dozen people in orange vests waited in a moonlike landscape beneath a 350-foot-tall dam near Loveland.

Invasive species are on the march in the Colorado River, threatening everything from endangered native fish in Arizona to Colorado’s juicy Palisade peaches.

Cody Moser with the federal Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said in a monthly briefing Tuesday that just 1.4 million acre feet of Colorado River water is expected to reach Lake Powell through July. That's less than a quarter of what's considered normal.

Colorado's state climatologist said long-range forecasts are also not signaling a 'Miracle March.'

Leaders of environmental groups are issuing fresh warnings this week about the impacts the ongoing gridlock could have in the river basin.

The Fetcher ranch in northwest Colorado is on the frontlines this year of record-low snowpack across the West. It's adding a sense of urgency among seven states to finalize a plan for how to conserve the dwindling Colorado River.