The first crack in the area’s suspension on new housing that relies on groundwater appears.
Water
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
Want fluoride in the water? Too bad.
Across the West, lawmakers are skipping over the will of voters and yanking fluoride.
Posted inOctober 2025: Limits to Growth
The dried-out subdivisions of Phoenix
A groundwater crisis halted the construction of thousands of homes and pitted affordability against environmental concerns.
Posted inOctober 2025: Limits to Growth
What do fens do? Make peat, store water and help combat climate change
Meet the researchers restoring these unique wetlands high in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains.
Posted inSeptember 2025: Who Controls Our Food?
The joyful responsibility of cutting fish
My favorite job reminds me that working together is everything.
Posted inArticles
Resistance to data centers rises on the border
In Doña Ana County, New Mexico, residents have long struggled to access clean water. Now, developers plan to spend $165 billion on a massive data center complex.
Posted inSeptember 2025: Who Controls Our Food?
The Rio Grande’s pecan problem
How Big Ag is threatening New Mexico’s water supply.
Posted inSeptember 2025: Who Controls Our Food?
Who controls food in the West?
Consolidation, shifting politics, water rights and the myth of the cowboy all play into the region’s ability to feed itself.
Posted inArticles
Wildfire is a growing threat to the West’s water systems
How fire and water managers can prepare.
Posted inAugust 2025: Fire Culture
The West’s data centers suck (water and power)
From simple searches to chatGPT, the big digital buildup threatens the grid and water supplies.
Posted inArticles
Why isn’t agrivoltaics taking off in Arizona?
Logistical hurdles and a lack of solar incentives keep panels and plants apart.
Posted inJuly 2025: Seeds as Sustenance
First came the record-setting fire. Then came the record-setting floods.
‘I don’t trust the water:’ How post-fire flooding has destabilized a rural community’s drinking water.
Posted inJuly 2025: Seeds as Sustenance
Western states step up to save their wetlands
The West’s vital wetlands are in trouble — but states are working to safeguard them.
Posted inArticles
Trump quits deal with Northwest tribes to restore salmon
The plan to remove four hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River Basin that blocks the free flow of salmon was canceled.
Posted inArticles
Can fracking wastewater be reused?
New Mexico’s legislators are eager to repurpose “produced water,” but environmental organizations say that there is no safe way to do that.
Posted inArticles
USGS’ biological research arm could vanish
Trump is on a multipronged mission to eliminate a science agency that conservationists, toxicologists, universities and more call irreplaceable.
Posted inArticles
Massive pipeline spill seeps toward Colorado’s Animas River
23,000 gallons of gasoline leaked on the Southern Ute reservation in December.
Posted inArticles
Trump’s unprecedented attack on America
We need an army of Raúl Grijalvas to stem the flood of ‘bullshit’ emanating out of the White House.
Posted inArticles
NOAA issues critical drought warnings during cuts to agency
The embattled agency continues to disseminate crucial updates in a hostile political environment.
Posted inArticles
Contamination threatens the last source of clean groundwater in west New Mexico
The toxic legacy of Cold War uranium mining and milling has shattered lives, destroyed homes and created a pollution problem for an entire region.