Water in the West: Documenting the Change

Published: March 4, 2024 • By Kelsey Simpkins

Dead fish line the sun-baked shore of Neenoshe Reservoir in eastern Colorado. Water in the sandy Arkansas River bed inches slowly eastward. Exposed rock, water lines, marooned boats and fresh green growth illustrate dramatic changes to the Colorado River and its tributaries happening at this very moment.

Two Colorado photojournalists on the front lines of Western water’s decline have captured these pivotal scenes — and in doing so, RJ Sangosti and Elliot Ross convey the consequences of hundred-year-old legal agreements, showcase what’s at stake and start conversations that will shape not only the future of Western water, but the rights of the people who rely on it.

“Drought, climate change and water issues in the West — no matter if it’s in the Colorado or Arkansas river basin, it’s all tied together,” said Sangosti.

The photographers received Ted Scripps Fellowships, a philanthropy-funded program celebrating over 25 years at CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism. As the region’s environment and its resources rapidly change, seeing is believing.

A boat reemerging from Lake Mead after low water levels

Above: A sunken boat reemerges at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada, during low water levels in 2023. Photo by RJ Sangosti.

RJ Sangosti

After two decades of covering Colorado breaking news for The Denver Post, RJ Sangosti needed a change. In 2020, during his Ted Scripps Fellowship, he found his calling covering Western water issues: “I knew the impact of what was happening on the Colorado River, but the fellowship made it crystal clear that this was the story of my life,” he said.

Sangosti’s transition to documenting Colorado’s environment was inspired by his firsthand experiences. Over the years, he saw changes happening in his home state that were affecting places he loved. He wanted to bring a voice to something that his kids would be proud of, and water in the West is “the biggest thing that we all need to be concerned about.”

“As climate change affects the West, we’re the first ones to see how a major river is affected,” he said. And in a dry region heavily reliant on major rivers for its water, communities in the West are also “going to be the first ones to feel it.”

“This is a story that I can work on, and should work on, until I don’t want to work anymore,” Sangosti said.

The story of Western water is a story about people. Whether to drink, complete chores or stay cool, water is not guaranteed in drought-stricken and disproportionately impacted communities.

Left, Top: In this photo, children cool off in a pool outside a home in Haswell, Colorado, which was hit hard by drought. Photo by RJ Sangosti.

Left, Bottom: The Navajo Nation was left out of talks 100 years ago when the Colorado River Compact was created. Today, nearly 40% of the Navajo Nation lives without running water. In this photo, Yolinda Mejia siphons water into a five-gallon bucket to use for a load of laundry outside her home on the Navajo Reservation in 2022. Photo by RJ Sangosti.

Right: Pelicans gather on a small island exposed by low water levels in 2020 at John Martin Reservoir in Hasty, Colorado. In 2019, Colorado and Kansas agreed to provide an additional water source to feed the reservoir, which the Colorado Parks and Wildlife calls a conservation pool. It took 40 years for this agreement to come to fruition. Photo by RJ Sangosti.

Glen Canyon

Above: The sharp curves within the northwestern arm of Glen Canyon form a stunning backdrop for the dramatic gap between the high-water line, marked by white calcium carbonate depositions, and the black mass of water below. Photo by Elliot Ross.

Elliot Ross

Elliot Ross was raised in part on Colorado’s eastern plains in a ranching family focused on weather and water. As he pursued photography, he dreamed of assignments that would take him to wild places around the world. Yet after years of working with elite photographers in New York, he returned home in 2018 to find that “water was more of a conversation than it had been when I left,” he said.

His time as a Ted Scripps Fellow brought him back to his Western roots, using his camera “to understand this most precious resource that we have — that a lot of us, myself included — take for granted [that it] runs clean out of the tap.”

In 2024, for the second half of his Scripps Fellowship, Ross is focusing on issues of water equity and justice to foster conversations about the disadvantaged populations who do not have the same access to this vital resource, especially tribal nations in the region.

Water equity is a timely topic. When regional leaders begin creating the 2026 interim guidelines for the Colorado River, Native American tribes will join the negotiating table, and “hopefully, for the first time they’ll be addressing the inequities of the 1922 Colorado River Compact through indigenous inclusion,” said Ross.

As water levels have dropped in the upper region of Glen Canyon, many valleys are buried in suffocating silt — some upwards of 200 feet deep.

Below: Elliot Ross’ wife, Genevieve, navigates the soupy, silt-filled aftermath of a flash flood in Iceberg Canyon, which removed about two feet of silt from the canyon in one day. This image “illustrates how quickly deposited sediment has been washed out,” said Ross, visualizing geologic change on a human timeline. Photo by Elliot Ross.

Silt in Iceberg Canyon

As water recedes from canyon walls and valleys, flora thrives once again, forming a diverse ecosystem within the vast number of tributary canyons that feed into the main Colorado River channel.

Ross’ summer 2024 exhibition at the Denver Botanic Gardens, “Geography of Hope,” puts a positive spin on these changes and illustrates the opportunities that can take root even in the absence of water.

Western ecological documentation was sparse before the construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964, which created Lake Powell by flooding almost 190 miles of canyon upstream. As this artificial lake shrinks, we are watching a major river and long-sunk ecosystem reestablish itself in Colorado, said Ross. Photos by Elliot Ross.

Houseboats on Lake Powell

Above: Houseboats gather in the deepest water available, with access to one of the last operating boat ramps off Lake Powell’s Bullfrog Bay. Here the decline of Western water is startlingly clear, as recreational boats sit unused on the lake. While 3 million visitors each year vacation and recreate on the reservoir, Ross is more concerned with those unable to access the water. Photo by Elliot Ross.

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Photos by RJ Sangosti and Elliot Ross

Issue: Spring 2024

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Above: A braided section of the Arkansas River flows east toward Kansas on Oct. 3, 2020 in Pueblo County, Colorado. Photo by RJ Sangosti.

RJ Sangosti

“This is a story that I can work on, and should work on, until I don’t want to work anymore,” Sangosti said.

Left: A sunken boat reemerges at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada, during low water levels in 2023. Photo by RJ Sangosti.

The story of Western water is a story about people. Whether to drink, complete chores or stay cool, water is not guaranteed in drought-stricken and disproportionately impacted communities.

Left, Top: In this photo, children cool off in a pool outside a home in Haswell, Colorado, which was hit hard by drought. Photo by RJ Sangosti.

Elliot Ross

Left: The sharp curves within the northwestern arm of Glen Canyon form a stunning backdrop for the dramatic gap between the high-water line, marked by white calcium carbonate depositions, and the black mass of water below. Photo by Elliot Ross.

As water levels have dropped in the upper region of Glen Canyon, many valleys are buried in suffocating silt — some upwards of 200 feet deep.

Left (kayak): Elliot Ross’ wife, Genevieve, navigates the soupy, silt-filled aftermath of a flash flood in Iceberg Canyon, which removed about two feet of silt from the canyon in one day. This image “illustrates how quickly deposited sediment has been washed out,” said Ross, visualizing geologic change on a human timeline. Photo by Elliot Ross.

As water recedes from canyon walls and valleys, flora thrives once again, forming a diverse ecosystem within the vast number of tributary canyons that feed into the main Colorado River channel.

Left: Houseboats gather in the deepest water available, with access to one of the last operating boat ramps off Lake Powell’s Bullfrog Bay. Here the decline of Western water is startlingly clear, as recreational boats sit unused on the lake. While 3 million visitors each year vacation and recreate on the reservoir, Ross is more concerned with those unable to access the water. Photo by Elliot Ross.

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Water in the West: Documenting the Change

RJ Sangosti

The story of Western water is a story about people. Whether to drink, complete chores or stay cool, water is not guaranteed in drought-stricken and disproportionately impacted communities.

Elliot Ross

As water levels have dropped in the upper region of Glen Canyon, many valleys are buried in suffocating silt — some upwards of 200 feet deep.

As water recedes from canyon walls and valleys, flora thrives once again, forming a diverse ecosystem within the vast number of tributary canyons that feed into the main Colorado River channel.

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RJ Sangosti

The story of Western water is a story about people. Whether to drink, complete chores or stay cool, water is not guaranteed in drought-stricken and disproportionately impacted communities.

Elliot Ross

As water levels have dropped in the upper region of Glen Canyon, many valleys are buried in suffocating silt — some upwards of 200 feet deep.

As water recedes from canyon walls and valleys, flora thrives once again, forming a diverse ecosystem within the vast number of tributary canyons that feed into the main Colorado River channel.

Spring 2024