High Country News

A downside to downing dams?

Removing dams is more a complex experiment than a panacea, as Arizona’s Fossil Creek shows.

by Michelle Nijhuis, Oct 01, 2007
Big water projects should make Westerners nervous

Demand for water is falling, so why are we going forward with giant water projects?

by Sharlene Leurig, Jan 24, 2013
Columbia River dams revived

In Washington, tribes have been shut out of a plan for new Columbia River dams that are being touted as good for salmon as well as farmers

by Matt Jenkins, Apr 03, 2006
D-Day for dam decommissioning approaches

Preparations have begun to bring down a century-old dam on Fossil Creek in central Arizona

by J.M. McCord, Apr 18, 2005
On the Colorado, a grand experiment meets Mother Nature

A recent experimental flood from Glen Canyon Dam may have killed endangered native humpback chub in the Colorado River through Grand Canyon

by J.M. McCord, May 02, 2005
Running on empty in Sin City

Although many rural Nevadans are unhappy with Las Vegas’ plans for a giant groundwater project, the six other states that rely on water from the Colorado River are hoping the Nevada project goes ahead.

by Matt Jenkins, Sep 18, 2006
Sometimes water can cost way too much

Aaron Million's plan to pump Green River water from Wyoming to Colorado's Front Range is unlikely to succeed because it's just too darn expensive.

by Chuck Howe, Apr 08, 2010
Squeezing Water from a Stone

With only a tiny share of the Colorado River available to it, Las Vegas decides to get the water it needs from elsewhere in the state – underneath the rural high-desert Basin and Range country

by Matt Jenkins, Sep 15, 2005
The Snake River, unplugged

The Nez Perce Tribe says that salmon-killing dams -- such as the three in Hells Canyon whose licenses are up for renewal this year – amount to an illegal "taking" of the tribe’s guaranteed right to fish

by Rachel Odell, Sep 05, 2005
Warning: Water policy faces an age of limits

New water projects and giant pipelines will do nothing to solve the West's drought and its increasing water shortage.

by Dan McCool, Apr 22, 2010