High Country News

What lies beneath

When pesticide chemicals were found underneath the houses of Barber Orchard, N.C., it aroused fears nationwide about the risks of building on former agricultural land.

by Sarah Gilman, Dec 05, 2010
Backyard poisons?

Soil samples from the yards of two Yakima families showed intriguing but not always comforting results.

by Rebecca Clarren, Dec 05, 2010
Toxic legacy

Some activists fear that toxic chemicals in a New Mexico landfill, left over from Cold War-era nuclear weapons research, may be creeping toward the Albuquerque Aquifer.

by Stephanie Hiller, Dec 10, 2007
Farming's Toxic Legacy

Long-banned pesticides linger in the soils of neighborhoods built on former agricultural land in central Washington.

by Rebecca Clarren, Dec 13, 2010
A loophole you can squeeze a feedlot through

In dry eastern Washington, small farmers resent a corporate feedlot’s access to scarce water supplies.

by Cally Carswell, Oct 19, 2009
Colorado River states reach landmark agreement

The seven states of the Colorado River Basin have come to a groundbreaking agreement that, among other things, will allow cities such as Las Vegas to lease water from out-of-state farms during times of drought

by Matt Jenkins, Feb 20, 2006
Drought forces a new era of agricultural water conservation

Whether converting open ditches into pipelines or fallowing fields, farmers and ranchers in the West are being forced to change the ways they use water as climate-induced drought tightens its grip.

by Paul Larmer, Feb 18, 2013
The BLM fights for the Southwest’s last free-flowing river

A federal agency asserts its water rights to the San Pedro river in a case that might eventually lead to limits on growth in Arizona.

by Tony Davis, Feb 20, 2013
Farmers agree to tax those who deplete groundwater

Amid drought and climate change in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, farmers vote for a new approach to rein in their overpumping of groundwater.

by Cally Carswell, Feb 25, 2013
Confessions of a Methane Floozy

An environmentalist who owns royalty interest in New Mexico oil and gas wells heads down to the San Juan Basin to talk to rancher Tweeti Blancett, driller Tom Dugan and others about the moral complexities inherent in Americans’ energy use

by Hannah Nordhaus, Dec 25, 2006