Tour America's seven-state, 1,450-mile plumbing system

What led to West's historic water crisis? What can be done to preserve the Colorado River? ProPublica explores the situation, at a glance.

Government’s damaging choice to back cotton in the desert

The federal subsidies that prop up cotton farming in Arizona are just one of myriad ways policymakers have refused to reshape laws to reflect water shortages throughout the Colorado River Basin states.

Pat Mulroy preached conservation while backing growth in Las Vegas

Despite Pat Mulroy's conservation bona fides, Las Vegas' former water chief put the city's expansion above all else. Did she push Vegas past its limits? “I've had it right up to here with all this ‘Stop your growth,’” she says.

How 40 years of unchecked growth may eventually bust Las Vegas water supply.

Across the West, exercising one’s right to waste water

“Use it or lose it” clauses give farmers, ranchers and governments holding water rights a powerful incentive to use more water than they need.

Inside the power plant fueling America’s drought

The Navajo Generating Station helps move trillions of gallons of water over mountains, through canals, 336 miles into Phoenix and Tucson. But it comes at an enormous cost.

View photos the disappearing Lake Powell.

Documenting the water crisis in the West, a photographer confronts distress, beauty and man’s complicity.

Despite decades of accepted science, California and Arizona are still miscounting their water supplies.