As a Colorado Aquifer Runs Low, Dangerous Heavy Metals Threaten Rural Communities’ Drinking Water

Julie Zahringer hears a common refrain at her environmental laboratory in Alamosa, Colorado: A customer has been drinking well water on family land where they’ve lived for years, but recently noticed it has changed. They want to know why. “All of a sudden it looks different, tastes different, there’s odor, there’s color,” said Zahringer. Zahringer’s […]

Record-Low Snowpack and Historic Heat Threaten New Mexico’s Time-Honored Irrigation Canals

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—On a sunny spring morning at the end of March, a woman raised her little girl above an irrigation ditch that runs just west of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque’s South Valley. The toddler, with a braided head piece crowning her long, brown hair and artificial flowers around her neck, enthusiastically tossed an assortment […]

Facing Drought and Low Snowpack, Rio Grande States Expect a “Challenging” Year

Reporting supported by the Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder. SANTA FE, N.M.—“Severe.“ “Critical.” “Dire.” “Challenging.” “Record-low.” Officials at the Rio Grande Compact Commission annual meeting Friday worked through the thesaurus to describe the conditions on the river that flows out of southwestern Colorado. Compact signatory states—Colorado, New Mexico and Texas—along with…

Feds Seek Access to Three Texas State Parks for Border Wall

Federal officials have already traced a path for a border barrier through multiple Texas state parks, according to documents obtained by Inside Climate News. A top Border Patrol official wrote to leaders of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) on March 6, assuring them that border wall construction at state parks and Big Bend […]

Border Communities Remain in the Dark About Federal Government’s Billion-Dollar Buoy Project

Reporting supported by the Water Desk at the University of Colorado, Boulder. BROWNSVILLE, Texas—An experiment unfolding at the southernmost tip of this state could irrevocably change the iconic Rio Grande and the communities it sustains. Contractors are installing a 17-mile stretch of cylindrical buoys in the river to prevent illegal crossings from Mexico. These are […]

Razor Wire and Clearcutting at the Border Threaten Native Rio Grande Habitat

Reporting supported with a grant from The Water Desk at the University of Colorado Boulder. ROMA, Texas—When Juan Moreno thinks of the islands in the Rio Grande, his mind goes to collecting pitaya cactus fruit with his father as a boy, or looking for Mexican blue wing butterflies with his own son. But to Customs […]

Tiny Texas School District Rejects Tax Deal with $6 Billion LNG Project

The Point Isabel Independent School District on Monday rejected a multi-million dollar tax break for a proposed $5.7 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project on the Texas Gulf Coast, finding the facility would not “align” with the community’s values or finances. Districts in Texas have typically granted such agreements, which are meant to incentivize investment […]

Border Wall Closes in on Big Bend

REDFORD, Texas—Plans for a border wall through the Big Bend region of West Texas are raising alarms among residents and elected officials. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intends to build border barriers throughout this remote region of Texas that encompasses ranchland, small towns and a cherished state and national park. Last week, the U.S. […]

Rio Grande Valley Advocates Urge Congress to Restore Protections for Public Lands In Path of Border Wall

Advocates are calling for the Homeland Security funding bill, currently being negotiated, to include protections for Texas parks and cultural heritage sites in the path of the border wall. During the first Trump presidency, Congress approved protections from border wall construction for several sites in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. These carveouts prohibited using federal […]

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