Tag: Water Rights
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Colorado Supreme Court signals intervention in 4 ongoing cases
The Colorado Supreme Court recently signaled that it may intervene in four cases from various trial courts, two criminal and two civil. At least four of the court’s seven members must agree to initiate the process of granting relief in a case outside the usual appellate procedure. The cases address an expert’s insight into child-parent…
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Cotton in CO? Southeast farmers test if crop has potential to take hold
BENT COUNTY — It’s easy to spot Caleb Wertz’s fields along the farmland east of Las Animas. About half of the Wertz family’s land is growing corn but the other half is filled with scraggly, foot-high plants dotted with soft white bulbs. Bulbs as soft as cotton. The Cotton Belt has never reached into Colorado before. But with…
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Colorado considers forcing HOAs to allow water-saving landscaping instead of grass
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As Colorado continues to suffer through harsh drought conditions, the state legislature is considering removing barriers for some residents to save water on lawn watering. Around 60% of Coloradans live under a homeowner association (HOA). If passed into law, Senate Bill 178 would allow those homeowners to swap their grass lawns for landscaping that needs less water…
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Colorado River Compact turns 100
Seven states signed the historic Colorado River Compact a century ago this week. The Compact provided a framework for fair sharing of the then-estimated 17.5 million annual acre-feet of water flowing past Lee Ferry, Arizona, located between Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Grand Canyon. The agreement has been hotly debated in 2022 as…
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Tipping Point: A Call for Change on the Colorado
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One hundred years of the Colorado River Compact — the agreement that divides 15 million acre feet of water each year among the seven states of the Colorado River basin and Mexico — has wrecked on the shoals of climate change and 22 years of drought. It doesn’t work anymore. What happens when the law…
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Tipping Point: Colorado River tribes fight for their water rights
Some 10,000 households on the vast Navajo Nation, which covers 27,000 square miles in three states, are still without running water. Native American tribes hold some of the most senior water rights in the Colorado River Basin, but history has shown that having senior water rights and having water are two different realities. The tribes,…
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Tipping Point: Colorado River basin farms stunted by megadrought
Farmers across the Colorado River Basin are facing an uncertain future in agriculture as the river’s watershed faces ongoing drought, rising irrigation costs, and conservation cutbacks. (Video by Skyler Ballard)
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Battle between landowners and fishermen reaches Colorado Supreme Court
A long-simmering dispute over river access in Colorado is winding its way through the Colorado courts, with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser taking a stand on protecting landowner rights to keep fishermen from wading through their property. Roger Hill, a fly fisherman, wants to fish in a particular pool in the Arkansas River, which happens…
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Plan to send San Luis Valley water to Douglas County hits opposition
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Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Farmers, ranchers and water managers in the San Luis Valley are gearing up for the fourth legal fight in as many decades to keep their water in its aquifer, and, this time, away from thirsty Douglas County, one of El Paso County’s neighbors to the…
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NEWS | Some Coloradans’ drinking water still has highest radium levels in the nation
In rural areas along the Arkansas River, turning on the tap can mean a dose of radioactive water, with some of the nation’s highest recorded drinking water radium levels. (Video by Skyler Ballard)