Summer 2025: The Water Below

Beneath the Surface

As Colorado reckons with shrinking aquifers, communities are beginning to rethink how — and whether — we can sustain the water beneath our feet. Can planning and management maintain this invaluable resource and Colorado’s communities that depend on it? View a flipbook of the issue or read articles below. 

Three Basins One Challenge

by Allen Best

Will these regions that historically relied largely and unsustainably on groundwater be able to shift their water use dynamics to use less water, find different sources, and save their communities? The road to sustainability is urgent. 

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Yampa River flows past rocks in Steamboat Springs
New Thinking for an Old Resource
July 15, 2025 by Elizabeth Miller
Communities in Colorado and beyond are rethinking how and where to develop groundwater and exploring models to balance use with preservation. Robust data collection is crucial, but so is understanding that management choices are as much social and political as scientific.
Innovation in the Subsurface
by Jennifer Oldham
Vast amounts of clean water could be stored underground in aquifers across the state. With just 13 aquifer storage and recovery projects in Colorado, is there potential for more?
Invisible Threats
by Emily Payne
Maintaining groundwater quality is uniquely complex, and less-studied than surface water. Little is known about the impacts of urbanization and a changing climate across the state, but some Colorado communities are stepping up to collect water quality data and protect their groundwater.
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