Southwest states have bought time with an agreement between California, Arizona and Nevada to cut Colorado River water use by about 14%. Now comes the hard part.
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Articles on Colorado River
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Two decades of drought have reduced the river’s flow by one-third compared to historical averages. The Biden administration is considering mandatory cuts to some states’ water allocations.
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.
Lake Powell’s existential crisis is a unique opportunity to save a treasured landscape.
A climate scientist explains the forces behind the summer’s extreme downpours and dangerous heat waves, and why new locations will be at risk in the coming year.
The world’s great rivers are see-sawing from trickles to floods.
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.
The Colorado River provides water and electricity to 40 million people in the western US, but falling water levels threaten both of those resources.
Agreements negotiated a century ago to share water on Western rivers among states are showing their age in a time of water scarcity.
A Western scholar proposes allocating water from the Colorado River based on percentages of its actual flow instead of fixed amounts that exceed what’s there – and including tribes this time.
A long-expected federal drought declaration underlines how serious the Colorado River water shortage has become for Western states.
Record heat and low rainfall are drying up water sources shared by the American Southwest and northern Mexico.
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.
Western states adopted a 7-year plan in May 2019 to manage low water levels in the Colorado River. Now they need to look farther ahead and accept that there will be less water far into the future.
The Grand Canyon, which marks 100 years as a national park on Feb. 26, 2019, is known today as an iconic natural wonder. But early European visitors weren’t impressed.
Taking millions of gallons of water permanently out of the Colorado River amid a prolonged drought would surely start an interstate fight.
On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a Native American scholar explains why water means more than just sustenance for life and how it’s the place of the divine.
Historically, indigenous peoples used the natural seasonal cycles of weather, plants and animals as part of their religious calendar. What will be the impact of climate change on their practices?
The Colorado River supplies water to millions of people and irrigates thousands of miles of farmland. New research warns that climate change is likely to magnify droughts in the Colorado Basin.
Top contributors
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Regents Professor Emeritus and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law & Public Policy Emeritus, University of Arizona
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Senior Research Scientist, Colorado Water Institute, Colorado State University
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Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Utah
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Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Senior Research Associate and Director, Western Water Policy Program, University of Colorado Boulder
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Professor of Practice in Water Policy and Governance and Director, Water Resources Program, University of New Mexico
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Archivist, Water Resources Archive, Colorado State University
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Distinguished Scholar, NCAR; Affiliate Faculty, University of Auckland
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Samual A. Graham Dean, and William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor of Environmental Education, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
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Emeritus Professor of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
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Fulbright-Lloyd's Visiting Scholar, University of New Orleans & Honorary Researcher, University of Leicester
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Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State
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Associate Professor, Writing Rhetoric and Communication, UMass Dartmouth
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Research Professor of Environmental Policy, University of Arizona
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Professor, School of Geography, Development and Environment, University of Arizona
