Tag: Wyoming

  • Biden admin outlines plan to cut vital water supplies in western states

    Biden admin outlines plan to cut vital water supplies in western states

    Photo: Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau speaks alongside Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in Commerce City, Colorado, on Dec. 14, 2022. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images) Actions could lead to a reduction of 652 billion gallons of water supplies to multiple western states The Biden administration proposed actions Tuesday that would significantly…

  • What drought? These states are gearing up to draw more water from the Colorado.

    What drought? These states are gearing up to draw more water from the Colorado.

    Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Wyoming wants to modify the Fontenelle Dam so it can use an extra 80,000 acre-feet of water from a tributary of the once-mighty Colorado River. At its headwaters, Denver Water hopes to expand a reservoir’s capacity by 77,000 acre-feet of water. And several hundred miles south, Utah is trying…

  • Plan for Colorado River draws on Blue Mesa, Flaming Gorge reservoirs

    Plan for Colorado River draws on Blue Mesa, Flaming Gorge reservoirs

    Historic proposal to create a conservation bank of water in Lake Powell fed by reservoirs in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico would protect the withering Powell and requires approval of eight states and the federal government Nearly two decades into a pervasive drought that has more to do with a warming climate than precipitation,…

  • Farmers drawing groundwater from Ogallala Aquifer faster than nature replaces it

    Farmers drawing groundwater from Ogallala Aquifer faster than nature replaces it

    Every summer the U.S. Central Plains go dry, leading farmers to tap into groundwater to irrigate sorghum, soy, cotton, wheat and corn and maintain large herds of cattle and hogs. As the heat rises, anxious irrigators gather to discuss whether and how they should adopt more stringent conservation measures. They know that if they do…

  • Did a huge Gillette water project frack-up rural wells?

    Did a huge Gillette water project frack-up rural wells?

    Michael Cranston’s family has ranched in Carlile since 1904. The rolling pine- and spruce-dotted Black Hills make Carlile — a quiet crossroads community between Moorcroft and Devil’s Tower — far more hospitable than the hardscrabble sagebrush plains stretching west toward Wyoming’s coal capital, Gillette. Also attractive to Cranston and his ancestors was a seemingly bountiful…