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Drought

As Water Levels Drop, the Risk of Arsenic Rises

In Colorado's famed San Luis Valley, residents who rely on well water are grappling not only with a shortage amid drought, but questionable quality of the water coming out of the ground.

By Melissa Bailey, KFF Health News

Angie Mestas, a schoolteacher, used a lifetime of savings to drill a drinking well on her land in Los Sauces, Colorado. But she won't drink from it until she tests for arsenic and E. coli, which are common in the area. Credit: Melissa Bailey for KFF Health News
Steve Turcotte, president and one of the founders of Los Charros Foundation, looks down on his cattle ranch property in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness in Winkelman, Arizona, on May 8, 2023. Photo by Emma Peterson for Inside Climate News

Preserving the Cowboy Way of Life

By Emma Peterson

A pontoon boat is tied up at the shore of a recently-revealed beach in one of Lake Powell's side canyons on April 10, 2023. The evening sunlight casts a reflection of the canyon's "bathtub rings" on the still water. Credit: Alex Hager / KUNC

At Lake Powell, Record Low Water Levels Reveal an ‘Amazing Silver Lining’

By Alex Hager, KUNC

A large fracking operation becomes a new part of the horizon with Mount Meeker and Longs Peak looming in the background on Dec. 28, 2017 in Loveland, Colorado. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Colorado Frackers Doubled Freshwater Use During Megadrought, Even as Drilling and Oil Production Fell

By Liza Gross

Aerial view of an abandoned boat on a desert at the site of former Lake Poopó, near Punaca Tinta Maria, Bolivia, taken on October 15, 2022. Credit: Martín Silva/AFP via Getty Images

Warming and Drying Climate Puts Many of the World’s Biggest Lakes in Peril

By Bob Berwyn

Construction continues on a new section for homes at Festival Ranch on Oct. 24, 2022 in Buckeye, Arizona. Credit: RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Amid Continuing Drought, Arizona Is Coming up With New Sources of Water—if Cities Can Afford Them

By Wyatt Myskow

A carcass of a cow is pictured as women carrying firewood walk in the background, in the area of Loiyangalani, Marsabit, northern Kenya, on July 12, 2022. Credit: Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images

An Agricultural Drought In East Africa Was Caused by Climate Change, Scientists Find

By Georgina Gustin

A stock pond south of Dallas dries up due to drought conditions. Across Texas, drought is taxing reservoirs and rivers and groundwater aquifers are being pumped faster than they can recharge. Currently, more than half the state is in drought. Credit: Paul Buck/AFP via Getty Images.

Texas Eyes Marine Desalination, Oilfield Water Reuse to Sustain Rapid Growth

By Martha Pskowski

Two patches of land sit in a dried up lake bed in 2022. These were once islands in Laguna de Aculeoa, a popular freshwater lake for fishing, boating and swimming, just an hour from Santiago, Chile. The lake dried up completely in 2018 due to the ongoing megadrought.

More Than a Decade of Megadrought Brought a Summer of Megafires to Chile

Story and Photos by James Whitlow Delano

In Mammoth Lakes, California, snow covers roofs next to snowbanks in March piled up from new and past storms in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in the wake of an atmospheric river event. Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images.

California Snowpack May Hold Record Amount of Water, With Significant Flooding Possible

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

An aerial view of landslide damage in La Cañada Flintridge, California on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

California, Battered by Atmospheric Rivers, Faces a Big Melt This Spring

By Bob Berwyn

Eric Balken, executive director of Glen Canyon Institute, walks along a sandbar once submerged by Lake Powell. As the reservoir drops to record lows, areas that were underwater for decades have begun to emerge. Credit: Alex Hager

Lake Powell Drops to a New Record Low as Feds Scramble to Prop it Up

By Alex Hager, KUNC

Residents work to push back wet mud that trapped cars and invaded some houses on Jan. 11, 2023 in Piru, east of Fillmore, California. A series of powerful storms pounded California in striking contrast to the past three years of severe to extreme drought experienced by most of the state. Credit: David McNew/Getty Images

Confronting California’s Water Crisis

By Liza Gross

More than two thirds of the Colorado River begins as snow in Colorado. However, warm temperatures and dry soil are steadily reducing the amount of snowmelt that makes its way into the river, which supplies 40 million people across the Southwest. Credit: Alex Hager/KUNC

This Winter’s Rain and Snow Won’t be Enough to Pull the West Out of Drought

By Alex Hager, KUNC

Construction continues in October 2022 on a new section of homes at Festival Ranch in Buckeye, Arizona. Future development in the city, 35 miles west of Phoenix, could be imperiled by a lack of water. The flight for aerial photography was provided by LightHawk. Credit: RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images.

Arizona’s New Governor Takes on Water Conservation and Promises to Revise the State’s Groundwater Management Act

By Wyatt Myskow

Families come to the Ammusait General Hospital malnutrition ward to tend to their sick children and family members. Staff is limited so family members become caretakers at the hospital. Credit: Larry C. Price

A Hospital Ward for Starving Children in Kenya Has Seen a Surge in Cases This Year

By Georgina Gustin

A boat dock sits on dry ground far from the water at Lake Mendocino on April 22, 2021 in Ukiah, California. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

When the State Cut Their Water, These California Users Created a Collaborative Solution

By Emma Foehringer Merchant

John Entsminger, who runs the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said states will probably come up with an "imperfect alternative" to last until 2026, when current rules for managing the Colorado River expire and states are expected to draw up a "longer-term, more durable solution." Credit: Alex Hager/KUNC

‘It Is Going to Take Real Cuts to Everyone’: Leaders Meet to Decide the Future of the Colorado River

By Alex Hager, KUNC

The body of a camel that died the day before of starvation lies near Marsabit, Kenya. Credit: Larry C. Price

In a Famed Game Park Near the Foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, the Animals Are Giving Up

By Georgina Gustin

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