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In Arizona, fields of crops and a growing sprawl of suburban homes mean a increased demand for water in the middle of the desert. Meeting that demand includes drawing from massive stores of water in underground aquifers. But some experts say groundwater is overtaxed, and shouldn’t be seen as a long-term solution for a region where the water supply is expected to shrink in the decades to come.

Nancy Caywood’s Pinal County farm should have a full field of alfalfa, but since the irrigation district shut off her water because of drought, her fields are empty and dry.

Scientists predict climate change will lead to unpredictable precipitation and possible water shortages in Arizona and throughout the West in the coming years — on top of the current drought. Four pro teams in the Colorado River Basin states of Arizona and California spoke with The Associated Press about water usage and sustainability strategies.

“We are careening towards this future where our mountains no longer have the snowpack that we have come to expect them to have to meet our downstream water needs."

More places around the U.S. are eyeing the practice of recycling wastewater for reuse in homes and businesses as tap water. Cities see it as a way to ensure water supplies as their populations grow and climate change intensifies droughts. In Colorado, officials are educating residents about the practice with a mobile water recycling exhibit.

It’s been almost exactly a year since the Cameron Peak Fire tore through the foothills outside of Fort Collins on its way to becoming the largest fire in state history. Now, restoration efforts are underway.

The federal government declared a water shortage for much of the Southwest last week, resulting in the first ever mandatory cutbacks for some who draw from the Colorado River. As two decades of drought, increased demand and climate change cut deep into the West’s water supply, the region is looking ahead to a future where supplies might drop further still.

Lack of potable water drove high COVID-19 rates in Native American communities. That realization may help them gain better representation in upcoming negotiations about Colorado River water.

Environmental groups suing to halt construction of the Windy Gap Firming Project in Northern Colorado have agreed to drop their case in exchange for $15 million to address concerns about the proposed project’s water quality and ecological effects.

Record-breaking wildfires in 2020 turned huge swaths of Western forests into barren burn scars. Those forests store winter snowpack that millions of people rely on for drinking and irrigation water. But with such large and wide-reaching fires, the science on the short-term and long-term effects to the region’s water supplies isn’t well understood.