A 12 million-ton relic of the Cold War willget hauled away from Moab
Colorado River
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Arizona returns to the desert
The worst drought in a century could bring home the true costs of growth
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
What’s worse than the worst-case scenario? Real life
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Arizona returns to the desert.” In the early 1990s, the U.S. Geological Survey and several other government agencies funded a little-noticed study of the effect of a major drought on the Colorado River. Researchers were particularly interested in its impacts on Lakes Powell and […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
From folk singer to fierce activist — the life of Katie Lee
Among desert rats and river lovers, folk singer and activist Katie Lee is legendary. A Hollywood actress in her youth, Lee started running Southwestern rivers in her 30s and became an outspoken defender of her beloved Colorado River. She fought the damming of Glen Canyon, and celebrated its beauty and mourned its loss in All […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Let’s not ram more boats through the Grand Canyon
Each year, nearly 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon, most of them traveling to the South Rim, where they spend as much time looking for a parking place as they do looking at the canyon. Only a small fraction venture below the rim on a trail. Another 22,000 people a year see the canyon […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Moab uranium tailings: should they stay or should they go?
The U.S. Department of Energy is calling for public comment on its plans to clean up a 130-acre pile of uranium tailings and contaminated soils currently leaching ammonia and radioactive materials into groundwater — and the Colorado River — just three miles upstream from Moab, Utah. The Atlas Minerals Corporation had operated the Moab uranium […]
Posted inDecember 6, 2004: Where Do We Go From Here?
Grand plan for Grand Canyon
Every year, more than 22,000 people run the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Amazingly, there is still a list of 8,000 private, non-commercial boaters who have waited up to 15 years to get on the ultimate whitewater run in the country. That waiting list is among several reasons the National Park Service has released […]
Posted inMay 24, 2004: In Search of Solidarity
Toxic chemical creeping toward Colorado River
CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA Chromium 6, the toxic element made infamous by the movie Erin Brockovich, is back in the news. In Southern California and central Arizona, water officials fear that the chemical might contaminate drinking water for some 20 million people, as it creeps toward the Colorado River from a pump station on a natural gas […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2003: The Gear Biz
California strikes a water truce
A landmark water deal could bring peace on the Colorado River — and money for the Salton Sea