Alex Hager
Reporter, Colorado River BasinAlex is KUNC's reporter covering the Colorado River Basin. He spent two years at Aspen Public Radio, mainly reporting on the resort economy, the environment and the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, he covered the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery for KDLG in Dillingham, Alaska.
Alex has a journalism degree from Elon University, where he spent four years working for the student newspaper and TV station. While at Elon, he also worked as a sports correspondent for the Burlington Times-News, covering ACC football and basketball as well as Carolina Panthers NFL football.
When he’s not in the office, Alex enjoys hiking, practicing Spanish, playing basketball, and reading poetry. He was born and raised in Connecticut.
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Colorado River water managers are facing a monumental task. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has asked seven western states to commit to an unprecedented amount of conservation and do it before a deadline later this summer. This comes amid shrinking water levels in the nation's largest reservoirs. -
Beavers create messy wetlands as safe places to live, and a new paper explains how their engineering is also a powerful tool in fending off the harms of climate change. Their dams, channels and ponds have positive side effects that reduce the damage caused by flood, drought and wildfire.
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A U.S. Congress bill focuses on infrastructure. Also, a "shared vision" statement from tribes that live in the Colorado River basin and conservation groups focuses on the environmental issues around water access and aims to give tribes a greater voice.
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Lake Powell is is strained by more than two decades of drought, and its water levels are dipping dangerously low. The reservoir recently passed an important threshold when water levels went below 3,525 feet — the last major milestone before a threat to hydropower generation at the Glen Canyon Dam. What's next for the nation's second-largest reservoir?
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Year by year, Rocky Mountain snowpack is shrinking, slowly exhibiting the sting of a warming climate. The way we measure the snow is changing too, as a shifting baseline for what counts as “average” paints a somewhat deceptive picture of how much snow is stored at high altitude.
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Tribes will get $1.7 billion for water rights settlements as part of federal infrastructure spendingTribes, including many of those in the Colorado River basin, have some of the oldest water rights in the region, but often lack the infrastructure to use their full allotments. The new federal money is designed to fund the construction of reservoirs, pumping stations and clean drinking water systems that help tribes use more of the water they’re owed.
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In Arizona, fields of crops and a growing sprawl of suburban homes mean a increased demand for water in the middle of the desert. Meeting that demand includes drawing from massive stores of water in underground aquifers. But some experts say groundwater is overtaxed, and shouldn’t be seen as a long-term solution for a region where the water supply is expected to shrink in the decades to come.
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Three western states and the federal government have signed a $200 million deal to keep Lake Mead viable. Millions depend on it for water and electricity. It's at a historic low due to climate change.
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Water agencies from Arizona, Nevada, California and the federal government agreed to a multimillion dollar plan to keep more water in Lake Mead. The deal was signed at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas.
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“Anything that has to do with water, we’ve been totally blocked out,” said Christopher Tabbee of the Ute Indian Tribe. “We’ve never been consulted on any decisions.”
