Reservoirs and streams are in good shape in California and the Great Basin, but groundwater and ecosystems are another story. And then there’s the Colorado River Basin.
A trooper checks the tire of a truck carrying flammable contents during a random hazmat checkpoint in Colorado.
Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is looking into new rules for trains. Trucks, however, are involved in thousands more hazmat incidents every year in the US.
The white ‘bathtub ring’ around Lake Powell, which is roughly 110 feet high, shows the former high water mark.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Election-related violence isn’t unheard of in the US. A scholar of gun laws explains how the threat is only increased by allowing people to carry firearms as they vote.
Arizona’s cities and towns have been flooded with signage during the heavily contested 2022 elections.
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Supporters and volunteers love them. But it’s difficult for political scientists to determine whether they even influence the outcome of elections, since no two campaigns or election cycles are alike.
Low-tech irrigation on a cattle ranch near Whitewater, Colo., June 30, 2021.
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Stemming the water crisis in the western US will require cities and rural areas to work together to make water use on farms – the largest source of demand – more efficient.
Farmers in some regions are being encouraged to preserve and establish grasslands that can survive drought and protect the soil.
AP Photo/Mark Rogers
La Niña is only part of the problem. The long-term driver of increasing drought – even in areas getting more rainfall overall – is the rapidly warming climate.
The white ‘bathtub ring’ around Lake Mead, shown on Jan. 11, 2022, is roughly 160 feet high and reflects falling water levels.
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Fire season is getting longer, and the result is transforming iconic desert ecosystems. The start to 2022 has been so dire, one governor called for a federal disaster declaration.
Colorado River water flows through a canal that feeds farms in Casa Grande, Ariz., on July 22, 2021.
AP Photo/Darryl Webb
Keeping landscapes connected can help protect wild animals and plants. In the US Southwest, border wall construction is closing off corridors that jaguars and other at-risk species use.
Lightning during a monsoon storm in southern Arizona, Saguaro National Park.
Pete Gregoire, NOAA
Monsoons are weather patterns that bring thunderstorms and heavy rains to hot, dry areas when warm, moist ocean air moves inland. They’re challenging to forecast, especially in a changing climate.
Water flows into a canal that feeds farms in Casa Grande, Ariz.
AP Photo/Darryl Webb
A long-expected federal drought declaration underlines how serious the Colorado River water shortage has become for Western states.
The Supreme Court waited until the final day of its 2020-2021 term, July 1, 2021, to issue two controversial decisions, including one that may dramatically limit voting rights in the US.
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The court upheld two Arizona laws that limit when, where and how people can vote.The ruling further guts the Voting Rights Act at a time when many US states are passing more restrictive voting rules.
Juniper trees, common in Arizona’s Prescott National Forest, have been dying with the drought.
Benjamin Roe/USDA Forest Service via AP
Without enough water, trees can develop embolisms, similar to blockages in human blood vessels, and they’re more likely to die from drought or fires.
The Maricopa County Election Department counts ballots in Phoenix on Nov. 5, 2020. Arizona’s election laws are the subject of a pending Supreme Court decision.
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In Brnovich v. DNC, the court will decide whether two Arizona rules unfairly hurt poor, minority and rural voters. The ruling could determine the fate of many states’ restrictive new voting laws.
An orchard near Kettleman City in California’s San Joaquin Valley on April 2, 2021.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Debra Perrone, University of California, Santa Barbara and Scott Jasechko, University of California, Santa Barbara
The US has one of the highest groundwater use rates in the world. When wells run dry, households may opt to conserve water, find new sources or sell and move.
Aerial view of Lake Powell on the Colorado River along the Arizona-Utah border.
AP Photo/John Antczak
The Supreme Court recently dealt defeat to Florida in its 20-year legal battle with Georgia over river water. Other interstate water contests loom, but there are no sure winners in these lawsuits.
Rivko Knox, a volunteer with the League of Women Voters in Phoenix, and other voters sued Arizona over a law that bans the third-party collection of early mail-in ballots. The issue is now before the Supreme Court.
AP Photo/Anita Snow