• Donate
  • Subscribe
  • WATER
  • ENVIRONMENT
  • COVID-19
  • LOCAL DATA
  • SOCIAL JUSTICE
  • NEWSLETTERS
    • The Roundup
    • The Runoff
  • HISTORY
  • ABOUT
    • About
    • Staff, Board & Advisers
    • Editorial Independence Policy
    • Donors and Funders
    • Publish Our Work
    • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Skip to content
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Aspen Journalism

Aspen Journalism

local. nonprofit. investigative

  • Donate
  • Subscribe
DONATE
  • WATER
  • ENVIRONMENT
  • COVID-19
  • LOCAL DATA
  • SOCIAL JUSTICE
  • NEWSLETTERS
    • The Roundup
    • The Runoff
  • HISTORY
  • ABOUT
    • About
    • Staff, Board & Advisers
    • Editorial Independence Policy
    • Donors and Funders
    • Publish Our Work
    • Contact
Heather Sackett

Author Archives: Heather Sackett

Heather Sackett is the managing editor at Aspen Journalism and the editor and reporter on the Water Desk. She has also reported for The Denver Post and the Telluride Daily Planet. Heather has a master’s degree from CU’s Center for Environmental Journalism and her reporting has been recognized by the Colorado Press Association.

Posted inWater

West Slope water managers will not review, approve applications for conservation program

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett March 17, 2023March 20, 2023

Eight of the proposed projects are in the southwest corner of the state, within the bounds of the Southwestern Water Conservation District, and get their irrigation water from the Dolores Project.

Posted inWater

Colorado Springs seeks to keep water rights tied to dams, reservoirs

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett March 11, 2023March 11, 2023

Colorado Springs Utilities has been mired in water court since 2015, fighting for its conditional water rights, which date to 1952 and are tied to three proposed reservoirs

Posted inWater

Low-elevation snow stacks up this season

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett March 4, 2023March 10, 2023

What more snow at lower elevations means for the timing of this spring’s runoff is also unclear, but forecasters say runoff volume should be above average.

The Government Highline Canal
Posted inWater

Water managers set criteria for conservation program participation

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett February 22, 2023February 22, 2023

The Grand Valley Water Users Association (GVWUA) is rejecting the concept of paying farmers based on an amount of unused water, even as the association’s board voted to participate in the rebooted program.

A machine blows artificial snow at the top of Little Nell on Aspen Mountain
Posted inThe Runoff

The Runoff | Legislation, funding applications and instream flow loans

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett February 13, 2023February 24, 2023

The opening weeks of 2023 have been filled with legislative updates and new bills, state water board news, Colorado River happenings and new chapters for local issues. Let’s dive in. – Heather SackettEditor and Reporter on the Water Desk No-flush wipes bill drafted State Senators Dylan Roberts and Perry Will, who represent the Western Slope […]

BDA Trail Creek
Posted inWater

State officials draft bill on stream restoration

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett February 2, 2023February 23, 2023

Although these projects benefit the environment, improve water quality and create resiliency against wildfires and climate change, keeping water on the landscape for longer could potentially have impacts to downstream water users.

Posted inWater

River District considers criteria for water conservation program

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett January 20, 2023January 20, 2023

The policy says that Front Range water providers — which in total take about 500,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water each year across the Continental Divide to growing cities and for agriculture — must also contribute their fair share of water.

Volunteers measuring snow-whatever equivalent at the SNOTEL site at the top of McClure Pass
Posted inWater

Scientists studying water supply focus on weeks following peak snowpack

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett January 18, 2023February 23, 2023

But according to the paper, in 2021, “rates of snowmelt throughout April were alarming and quickly worsened summer runoff outlooks which underscores that 1 April may no longer be a reliable benchmark for western water supply.”

Colorado Water Conservation Board Executive Director and commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission, Becky Mitchell
Posted inThe Runoff

The Runoff | From panic to acceptance

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett December 28, 2022December 28, 2022

Some water managers at CRWUA acknowledged a truth that is widely known but rarely stated so candidly: As the Colorado River crisis deepens, water to cities will not be cut off in favor of continuing to grow hay in the desert, no matter what the law of the river says. 

Caesars Palace in Las Vegas
Posted inWater

Upper basin moves closer to water conservation program

Heather Sackett by Heather Sackett December 18, 2022December 20, 2022

LAS VEGAS — Upper Colorado River basin officials seemed to inch closer to implementing a demand management program, the heart of which involves paying agricultural water users to use less, at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference this week.   At the annual gathering of water managers and experts in Las Vegas — which sold […]

Posts navigation

1 2 3 … 17 Older posts
Aspen Journalism
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • About
  • Publish Our Work
© 2023 Aspen Journalism. Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic