Luke Runyon
Co-Director The Water DeskLuke Runyon is co-director of The Water Desk, a journalism initiative at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism that focuses on Western water issues and the Colorado River Basin. In 2017 he launched the Colorado River Reporting Project at KUNC, the NPR station for Northern Colorado, where he hosted and reported the podcast, “Thirst Gap: Learning To Live With Less On The Colorado River.” He currently serves as president of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
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A hotter, drier future means advocates have to get creative to keep water in streams. -
There's a lot of anxiety about climate change shrinking Lake Powell, but it also means whitewater rapids upstream have re-emerged. Thrillseekers can now run them for the first time since the 1960s.
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There's a lot of anxiety about climate change shrinking Lake Powell, but it also means whitewater rapids upstream have re-emerged. Thrillseekers can now run them for the first time since the 1960s.
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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation's request for a federal assessment of its water needs and, potentially, to meet those needs with water from the Colorado River.
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The Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation in a case centered on the tribe’s rights to the drying Colorado River. The tribe claimed it was the federal government’s legal duty to help figure out their future water needs, and aid them in using their rights. But in a 5-4 decision, the justices said an 1868 treaty included no such promises. -
Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo Nation in a long-running dispute over what obligations the federal government has to supply water to Native Americans.
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Now that a historic agreement on sharing the Colorado River has been struck, states are working out the details, and planning for its expiration in 2026.
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The White House and seven Western states have agreed to a framework for sharing the Colorado River's water. The deal directly impacts 40 million people who rely on the river for water and power.
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Cuts to water use along the Colorado River could be spread evenly across some southwestern states, or follow the more than a century-old priority system that currently governs water management. Those are two alternatives federal officials are considering to keep hydropower generation going at the nation’s largest reservoirs according to a draft plan released Tuesday. -
The law that divides the Colorado River between seven states is turning 100, and it's being strained beyond what its drafters could have imagined.
