Western United States

A special mid-year West Slope Water Summit brought together water managers and community leaders to address a dire water year. Projected inflows into Lake Powell are expected to be well below half of normal — and negotiations over the river's future remain unresolved.

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.

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.

The sluggish Colorado River negotiations have entered a new phase: Long and fiery letter writing.

A congressional resolution could roll back 2025 management rules for Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, sparking debate over land use and conservation.

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River need to figure out who will take cuts to water usage as climate change worsens drought in the basin. The federal government needs to start an environmental review process in order to have any new operating guidelines in place by October.

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

New economic surveys show rising farm debt, falling equipment sales, and growing financial stress for producers, as wolf programs add costs for western states.

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.

An unusually warm and dry January has pushed much of the western U.S. into one of the worst snow droughts in decades, with record-low snowpack raising concerns for water supplies and wildfire risk.