Luke Runyon
Managing Editor & Reporter, Colorado River BasinAs KUNC鈥檚 managing editor and reporter covering the Colorado River Basin, I dig into stories that show how water issues can both unite and divide communities throughout the Western U.S. I edit and produce stories for KUNC and a network of public media stations in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Nevada.
In 2021 I was a Ted Scripps fellow at the University of Colorado's Center for Environmental Journalism. Before covering water at KUNC I covered the agriculture and food beat for five years as the station鈥檚 Harvest Public Media reporter. I鈥檝e also reported for Aspen Public Radio in Aspen, Colo. and Illinois Public Radio in Springfield, Ill. My reports have been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Here & Now and APM's Marketplace. I鈥檓 a proud graduate of the University of Illinois鈥� Public Affairs Reporting program.
My work has been recognized by the Society of Environmental Journalists, Radio Television Digital 暗黑爆料 Association, the Colorado Broadcasters Association and the Public Media Journalists Association.
When I鈥檓 not at the station you can usually find me out exploring the Rocky Mountains with either a pack on my back or skis on my feet.
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States in the Colorado River Basin have failed to meet a federal deadline to conserve an unprecedented amount of water. The lack of consensus on how to wean off the river鈥檚 dwindling supply puts the water source for 40 million in the Southwest in jeopardy. -
Colorado鈥檚 top water policy official says the state is not prepared to give specifics when it comes to conserving water from the Colorado River. -
Since Glen Canyon Dam was commissioned in 1964 and it first began filling, Lake Powell has never been like it is right now, at just 27% of its capacity. It鈥檚 threatening to dip below the minimum elevation needed to produce hydropower within the next year. A string of dry winters could push it to dead pool status. -
Mounting pressure to find water to conserve has Upper Basin leaders saying the savings should come from elsewhere -
States in the Upper Colorado River Basin are not ready to commit to federal water conservation targets, but are seeking to revive a conservation program first launched in 2014. -
A summer deadline approaches for state leaders to agree on how to cut their water use from the Colorado River. -
Colorado鈥檚 water shortages are not relegated to the distant future. Water supplies cannot meet current demands in many communities, and are only likely to worsen as climate change heats up and dries out the state鈥檚 cities and farms. -
Colorado River water managers are facing a monumental task. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has asked seven western states to commit to an unprecedented amount of conservation and do it before a deadline later this summer. This comes amid shrinking water levels in the nation's largest reservoirs. -
Seven years ago, a pulse of water on the Colorado River at the U.S.-Mexico border temporarily reconnected it to the Pacific Ocean. Scientists used the so-called 鈥減ulse flow鈥� to study what plant and animal life returned to the desiccated delta along with water. -
The massive reservoir on the Colorado River hit a new historic low on July 24, dropping below 3,555.1 feet in elevation. The previous low was set in 2005. The last time the reservoir was this low was in 1969, when it first filled.
