Skip to content
  • Science
  • Politics
  • Justice & Health
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • ICN Local
  • Projects
  • Impact
  • About Us
Inside Climate News
Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet.
Donate
Trump 2.0: The Reckoning
Inside Climate News
Donate

Search

  • Science
  • Politics
  • Justice & Health
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • ICN Local
  • Projects
  • Impact
  • About Us
  • Newsletters
  • ICN Sunday Morning
  • Contact Us

Topics

  • A.I. & Data Centers
  • Activism
  • Arctic
  • Biodiversity & Conservation
  • Business & Finance
  • Climate Law & Liability
  • Climate Treaties
  • Denial & Misinformation
  • Environment & Health
  • Extreme Weather
  • Food & Agriculture
  • Fracking
  • Nuclear
  • Pipelines
  • Plastics
  • Public Lands
  • Regulation
  • Super-Pollutants
  • Water/Drought
  • Wildfires

Information

  • About
  • Job Openings
  • Reporting Network
  • Whistleblowers
  • Memberships
  • Ways to Give
  • Fellows & Fellowships

Publications

  • E-Books
  • Documents

San Luis Valley

As a Colorado Aquifer Runs Low, Dangerous Heavy Metals Threaten Rural Communities’ Drinking Water

In the San Luis Valley, the ongoing megadrought and a record-low snowpack are draining groundwater and increasing its concentrations of toxic metals. There are few protections for residents drinking from private wells.

By Emily Payne

Anna Vargas, of Manassa, Colorado, is a sixth-generation resident of the San Luis Valley who is deeply embedded in local water management initiatives. She hasn’t drunk her own tap water in years out of fear of contamination. Credit: Jacob Spetzler/Inside Climate News
Sarah Jones stands under a center pivot irrigation unit, with a few stems of rye in the foreground, on her farm in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Credit: Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

America’s Rye Whiskey Resurgence Could Help the Climate, but Not by Itself

By Emily Payne

Newsletters

We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web's top headlines deliver the full story, for free.

Keep Environmental Journalism Alive

ICN provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going.

Donate Now
Inside Climate News
  • Science
  • Politics
  • Justice & Health
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Whistleblowers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Charity Navigator
Inside Climate News uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept this policy. Learn More