Water

From Salt Lake City to St. George, communities statewide experienced their warmest winter on record. Snowpack, air quality and ski shops all took a hit.

The Colorado River Basin appears to be gearing up for a legal fight. And the federal government is weighing its options for making the states share the shrinking river.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo released a joint statement Saturday calling on Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico to offer more concessions.

Negotiators are focusing on a five-year agreement for sharing water from the shrinking river. Experts say that would provide some much-needed flexibility.

It’s been four years since Utah's “Year of Water” at the Legislature, and now the state has its worst snowpack on record. We check in on what lawmakers have done since and what it means for Great Salt Lake.

Utah’s statewide snowpack level has reached a record low. Much of the West is in the grip of a snow drought, impacting everything from water supplies to mountain forests.

State negotiators entered the meeting at a years-long impasse over how water restrictions should be managed during dry years. They now have less than two weeks until a federal Feb. 14 deadline.

A new plant that cleans and recycles more sewage is another big step toward stretching Washington County’s limited water supply. It highlights the massive effort and big money it’ll take to keep the St. George area growing in the desert.

The Milken Institute put southwest Utah’s largest city in its top spot for the first time. The ranking highlights St. George’s job growth and wage growth, both among the nation’s highest in recent years.

Four days of negotiations in a Salt Lake City conference room earlier in January did not appear to have sparked a breakthrough.

The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute has reduced its Washington County future population forecast. That could have ripple effects for southwest Utah’s water needs.

The proposals range from taking "no action" to a scenario that might result in water cuts to the lower basin states of California, Nevada and Arizona. One alternative developed in partnership with conservation groups would incentivize proactive conservation of the river.