water

The state engineer's office says it's one of the earliest years it’s had to restrict water use. They’re anticipating some areas will be restricted for the first time ever.

A proposed ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts like electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater and agricultural impacts, and land value.

Data centers still enjoy favorability from state officials, but some are skeptical of corporate claims about water use.

Record-setting low snowpack and warm temperatures are creating less than ideal fishing conditions.

A year after the Elk Fire raged through the east side of the Bighorns in 2024, a rainstorm kicked off debris flows that closed a highway.

Arizona and other states are stuck in negotiations about sharing the river's water. Some have proposed breaking the standstill with a mediator.

The U.S. already has about 3,000 data centers — and that number is expected to grow quickly in the coming years. A new report finds much of that growth is shifting away from cities and into rural areas, including in the Mountain West.

As data centers rapidly expand across the Mountain West, researchers say a key question is getting harder to answer: how much water are they actually using?

Cody Moser with the federal Colorado Basin River Forecast Center said in a monthly briefing Tuesday that just 1.4 million acre feet of Colorado River water is expected to reach Lake Powell through July. That's less than a quarter of what's considered normal.

Disputes over water are becoming more common across the Mountain West as populations grow and supplies tighten. Now, a coalition of counties, ranchers and water advocates in Utah and Nevada is appealing federal approval of a groundwater pipeline project in southern Utah.