Topic: Western Water Coverage

Record-breaking wildfires in 2020 turned huge swaths of Western forests into barren burn scars. Those forests store winter snowpack that millions of people rely on for drinking and irrigation water. But with such large and wide-reaching fires, the science on the short-term and long-term effects to the region’s water supplies isn’t well understood.

Changing irrigation methods is something more and more Western Slope producers are doing, from small to large. With help from federal funding, they’re able to apply less water to grow their crops and make their land more resilient to drought.

The Colorado River is one of the most engineered river systems in the world. Over millions of years, the living creatures that call the river home have adapted to its natural variability, of seasonal highs and lows. But for the last century, they have struggled to keep up with rapid change in the river’s flows and ecology.

States in the Colorado River Basin are ready to begin negotiating policies to govern the critical Western water source.

All signs are pointing to a dry start to 2021 across much of the Colorado River watershed, which provides water to about 40 million people in the Western U.S.

A federal judge has rejected a challenge to the Windy Gap Firming Project, a proposed Front Range water supply project with plans to build a new dam and reservoir southwest of Loveland.

Great Basin caves tell a story linking climate change to a “worst-case scenario” with potential impact on 56 million Western water users.

Climate change and overuse are causing one of the Colorado River’s biggest reservoirs, Lake Powell, to drop. While water managers worry about scarcity issues, two Utah river rafters are documenting the changes that come as the massive reservoir hits historic low points.

Traveling along western rivers can give a glimpse into the power of erosion. The region’s deepest canyons were formed by moving water. But if you look closer, you can also see the ways humans have tried to control that process for their benefit, including some unconventional methods from decades ago that are still affecting waterways today.

2020 has been a tough year for some of the Colorado River basin’s long-planned, most controversial water projects. Proposals to divert water in New Mexico, Nevada and Utah have run up against significant legal, financial and political roadblocks this year.