The Associated Press partnered with six news organizations, collaborating on all-formats coverage from all corners of the Colorado River basin. Journalists from the AP and the member news outlets leveraged each other’s strengths to build a comprehensive, visually engaging and illuminating series on the state of one of America’s most important rivers, which is approaching a crisis point because of climate change and overuse.
The AP teamed up with the Colorado Sun, Albuquerque Journal, Salt Lake Tribune, Arizona Daily Star, Nevada Independent and Santa Fe New Mexican, all contributing stories from their respective states.
The package drew on expertise from across the AP. Reporters Felicia Fonseca, Suman Naishadham, Kathleen Ronayne and Mead Gruver, and video journalist Brittany Peterson, all had stories, with photos from staffers Greg Bull, John Locher and Rick Bowmer. Climate photo editor Alyssa Goodman worked with both the AP photographers and photo editors at the various papers, putting together featured posts. Peterson, Locher and Rockies news editor Brady McCombs delivered video, working with Climate video editor Teresa Miguel.
Climate data journalists Camille Fassett and Mary Katherine Wildeman analyzed water levels, usage and other metrics, elevating the stories, along with animations produced by Darrell Allen, deputy director for digital design, and animation producer Panagiotis Mouzakis.
The Colorado River flows at Horseshoe Bend in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Page, Ariz., June 8, 2022. In Arizona, water officials are concerned, though not panicking, about getting water from the river in the future as its levels decline and the federal government talks about states in the Colorado River Basin reducing their use.
AP Photo / Brittany Peterson
Joe Bernal walks on his family’s farm in Fruita, Colo., Sept. 1, 2022. With the Colorado River overtaxed, Grand Valley farmers in Colorado now face urgent questions regarding the future of their water supply, and concern over so-called water speculators. A New York investment firm, Water Asset Management, has spent millions buying farmland with valuable water rights in this part of Colorado.
Hugh Carey / The Colorado Sun via AP
Farmer Larry Cox walks to a truck on his farm near Brawley, Calif., as his dog Brodie soaks in an irrigation canal, Aug. 15, 2022. For generations, the Cox family has been farming in California’s Imperial Valley, which provides many of the nation’s winter vegetables and has one of the strongest claims on water from the Colorado River, the over-tapped supply for farms and cities across the West. In times of shortage, Arizona and Nevada must cut first. If the river were to become unusable, Southern California would lose a third of its water supply and vast swaths of farmland would go unplanted.
AP Photo / GREGORY BULL
Adan Vallejo diverts water with mud as he irrigates a field of cotton with water from the Colorado River near Ejido Mezquital, Mexico, Aug. 14, 2022. By the time the Colorado River reaches Mexico, just a fraction of its water is left for the fields of the Mexicali Valley and millions of people in northwestern desert cities.
AP Photo / Gregory Bull
Delanna Mart stands on a dock at a lake on Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, in Fort Duchesne, Utah, July 25, 2022. The distribution of water between Colorado River Basin states never took into account Native Americans, and in the past two decades, the situation on the Colorado River has become significantly more unbalanced, more dire. Scientists believe the current drought is the driest 22-year stretch in the past 1,200 years.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
People walk across the Grand Canyon Skywalk on the Hualapai reservation in northwestern Arizona., Aug. 16, 2022. Because the Hualapai Tribe does not have the right to draw river water, a restaurant that overlooks the Grand Canyon has waterless urinals in the restrooms and faucets with sensors. Customers are served bottled water and food in disposable containers with plastic utensils, cutting out most of dish washing.
AP Photo / John Locher
Garnett Querta fills his water truck from a fire hydrant on the Hualapai reservation in Peach Springs, Ariz., Aug. 15, 2022. The water pulled from the ground here will be piped dozens of miles across the rugged landscape to serve the roughly 600,000 tourists a year who visit the reservation on the Grand Canyon. The tribe does not have rights to draw water from the Colorado River.
AP Photo / John Locher
Hualapai rancher Clay Bravo leans against his truck as his pet dog Whisky stands on the roof on the Hualapai reservation in northwestern Arizona, Aug. 16, 2022. Despite the Colorado River coursing more than 100 miles through Hualapai land, the tribe can’t draw from it. Bravo is a critic of a settlement now before Congress. He says the tribe should wait, negotiate a better deal and develop groundwater resources at the same time.
AP Photo / John Locher
Nick Gann fishes in Firehole Canyon on the far northeastern shore of Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming, Aug. 5, 2022. A boating and fishing paradise on the Utah-Wyoming line, Flaming Gorge is beginning to feel the effects of the two-decade megadrought gripping the southwestern U.S.
AP Photo / Rick Bowmer
Floating boat docks sit on dry ground as water levels have dropped near the Callville Bay Resort & Marina in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Aug. 30, 2022. Lake Mead, a massive reservoir created by Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, is at a fraction of capacity as the river recedes.
AP Photo / John Locher
A formerly sunken boat stands upright in the mud at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, near Boulder City, Nev., June 10, 2022. Lake Mead, fed by the Colorado River, shows the effects of a 22-year drought and overuse of the river as a water source.
AP Photo / John Locher
A truck tire once in the water sits on dry ground near the Callville Bay Resort & Marina in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Boulder City, Nev., Aug. 30, 2022. Negotiations over the Colorado River have become increasingly difficult for the seven states that rely on the shrinking river and its reservoirs, including Lake Mead, which is dropping to critically low levels.
AP Photo / John Locher
Climate accountability editor Ingrid Lobet, environmental editor Tim Reiterman and Climate news director Peter Prengaman edited the AP stories. Prengaman also worked with reporters and editors from the partner organizations on the development of their stories. Participating member journalists included reporters Chris Outcalt, Tony Davis, Theresa Davis, Daniel Rothberg and Zak Podmore, and photographer Hugh Carey.
AP Climate engagement manager Natalia Gutierrez made a robust social media plan for each day of the week, and News editor McCombs also wrote a Localize It guide.
The series included 11 text stories, with photos and animations for each, exploring the river from the perspectives of all seven basin states, Native American tribes and Mexico. The package featured two in-depth video pieces, an overview of how the river got to this point and the challenges tribes face to exercise their water rights.
One week after the series launch, the stories had been picked up by more than 1,100 outlets. Organizations using the rich content included the Washington Post, Miami Herald, PBS News Hour, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo and ABC News.