Water Supply

Federal data typically focuses on the total amount of water stored, but some water has to stay in reservoirs to keep dams working. That means even less is available for cities and farms.

We talk with Amy Bowers Cordalis about her new book "The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family's Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life."

Too much rain at once after dry spells can make it hard for water to absorb into soil. Corey Lesk, co-author of a new study, described it as "asking the land to drink from a firehouse."

What an unusually hot spring means for Utah’s shrinking inland sea, and whether residents should expect more dust storms.

Recent policy changes in Utah have expanded state authority and narrowed how large projects like Stratos can be challenged.

Lake Powell, the upper Colorado River basin's largest reservoir, is projected to have its lowest summer inflow in its history this summer. Federal agencies have taken emergency measures to prop it up.

In other news, a Utah Supreme Court Justice has resigned after facing scrutiny from Republicans about an alleged conflict of interest. And, an emergency drought declaration could come this month.

On Monday, the Box Elder County Commission voted in favor of a controversial data center project — an undertaking that would create the largest single data center campus in the U.S.

The seven Western states have only five months until the current agreements expire. A warm winter with low snowpack has also made water supply forecasts more dire.

Widespread drought and fears of a power crisis forced the Interior Department to start sending billions of gallons of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Colorado downstream to prop up Lake Powell.