Water Episodes

After the Dragon Bravo Fire, Grand Canyon trail staff warned that the North Kaibab Trail faced years of heightened danger from debris flows, flash floods and rockfall. Yet the entire trail reopened in May 2026. Journalist Joe Dana of Phoenix's 12 News joins 90 Miles from Needles to discuss his reporting on internal National Park Service recommendations, pressure to restore public access, and the decisions made before the deadly August 29 Grand Canyon flood.

This week: four things to understand about desert flash floods, why blaming victims makes us less safe, and what both travelers and institutions can do to reduce the danger.

Only a handful of vaquitas have recently been observed, but the species doesn't have to be doomed. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho explains why these desert porpoises remain capable of recovery, and what must change to keep them alive.

Chris follows Colorado River water through irrigation districts, alfalfa fields, dairies and beef production, showing why livestock feed dominates consumptive use and how food choices intersect with tribal rights, farm policy and river survival.

Caroline Tracey discusses Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History, tracing how water diversion transforms terminal lakes while using natural history, queer theory and personal narrative to challenge the idea that saline landscapes are barren or disposable.

A monsoon in Twentynine Palms becomes an exploration of how scarce water shapes desert land and life, why rain smells so extraordinary, and how to stay safe when celebration turns into flash flooding.

Journalist David Morales explains how Tucson residents stopped Project Blue, a proposed Amazon data center whose enormous water and electricity demands exposed Arizona's tax incentives and longer history of extraction.

Teal Lehto, known online as Western Water Girl, explains Colorado River politics, prior appropriation, agricultural water use and how authentic social media storytelling can make water policy understandable.

Chris Clarke talks with Kyle Roerink about Colorado River over-allocation, proposed dams and diversions, direct lithium extraction in Green River, and difficult choices facing Lakes Mead and Powell.

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge protects one of the world's most remarkable concentrations of desert springs and endemic species, but a new mining proposal raises concerns about the groundwater sustaining them. Mason Voehl of the Amargosa Conservancy returns to discuss lithium exploration proposed by Rover Critical Minerals and the campaign to stop it. Chris and Mason examine the mining claims, the initial pause secured by conservation groups, and why industrial activity near Ash Meadows could have consequences extending far beyond the footprint of a mine.

Groundwater and surface water may have different names, but ecologically they're often the same resource. Chris Clarke talks with Patrick Donnelly of the Center for Biological Diversity about a major Nevada Supreme Court decision involving Coyote Springs, a proposed desert city whose groundwater pumping could damage the Muddy River and endangered wildlife. The ruling affirms Nevada's ability to consider interconnected groundwater and surface-water systems together, with potentially important consequences for water management throughout the state's arid landscapes.

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most extraordinary desert oases on Earth, home to crystal-clear springs and species found nowhere else. This episode explores the refuge's unique ecology, the conservation challenges it faces, and why protecting desert water is vital for preserving biodiversity throughout the Southwest.

Extreme drought and catastrophic flooding can seem like opposites, yet both are becoming defining features of the modern Southwest. This episode examines recent events in Death Valley and the Great Salt Lake, exploring what they reveal about climate change, water management, and the future of desert landscapes.

Summer monsoons shape life across the deserts of the Southwest, bringing relief from extreme heat and sustaining plants and wildlife. This episode explores how the North American Monsoon works, why it varies from year to year, and what scientists are learning about its future in a changing climate.

For generations, the American West has relied on the assumption that water could always be found somewhere. That era is ending. This episode examines drought, the Colorado River, and the changing realities of water management across the Southwest, asking what the future of desert communities will look like as water becomes increasingly scarce.

The Dixie Valley toad lives in just one warm spring in Nevada, making it one of North America's rarest amphibians. This episode explores the conservation fight to protect the species from geothermal development and examines how a tiny desert toad became the center of a much larger debate about renewable energy and biodiversity.