AGUACYCLE
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Analysis & reporting

Deep dives on the water stories that matter — tracing how communities across the country are confronting scarcity and turning to reuse.

Environment

Summer 2026 Drought Check: The Crisis Hits the East Coast

Delaware is entirely in severe-or-worse drought and the Mid-Atlantic is parched — a reminder that the water crisis is no longer just a Western story.

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Data

Mapping America's Worst Drinking-Water Violations

Oklahoma's water systems break the rules at the highest rate in the country, while Texas racks up the most violations by sheer volume. The gap between those two numbers is the whole story.

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Data

Where Americans Use the Most Water

The states with the highest per-capita water use are clustered in the arid West — and the reasons say more about irrigation and lawns than about long showers.

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Data

Lead in American Tap Water: What the 2026 Data Shows

More than a thousand U.S. water systems still deliver tap water above the federal lead action level — and two states account for more than half of them.

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Analysis

The AI Boom's Thirst: How Data Centers Strain Water Supplies

The water cost of artificial intelligence is not just the cooling towers you can see — it is the vast withdrawals behind the electricity that powers them, increasingly in the driest corners of the country.

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Environment

Shrinking Colorado River Pushes St. George, Utah Toward Recycled Drinking Water

With the long-planned Lake Powell Pipeline effectively shelved, Washington County is building a facility to turn treated wastewater into a new drinking water supply.

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Cities

How Las Vegas Made Tearing Out Grass a National Water Model

Southern Nevada's cash-for-grass program and ban on nonfunctional turf have become the playbook desert cities across the West are now copying.

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Cities

Phoenix Hit the Limits of Groundwater. Now It's Rationing Growth.

Arizona stopped approving groundwater-only subdivisions around Phoenix — a first-of-its-kind link between water scarcity and the housing market.

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Infrastructure

Inside the World's Largest Water Recycling System

Orange County's Groundwater Replenishment System turns sewage into drinking water for a million people — and quietly became the proof point for reuse nationwide.

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Infrastructure

El Paso Bets Its Future on Drinking Recycled Water

The desert border city is building one of the country's first plants to send purified wastewater straight into the tap — no reservoir buffer required.

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Explainer

What Is Potable Reuse? A Plain-English Guide to Drinking Recycled Water

Direct vs. indirect, the treatment train, and the 'yuck factor' — everything you need to understand the technology reshaping American water.

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Health

A Decade After Flint, the Lead-Pipe Reckoning Goes National

New federal rules require most U.S. cities to rip out their lead service lines. Nine million remain in the ground.

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Environment

The 2026 Colorado River Reckoning, Explained

Seven states must agree on how to share a shrinking river after 2026. Here's what's at stake for 40 million people.

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Environment

Lake Erie's Toxic Algae Is Back. Toledo Is Watching the Water.

A decade after a bloom shut off a half-million people's tap water, nutrient pollution keeps fueling summer outbreaks across the Great Lakes.

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Environment

The Great Salt Lake Is Disappearing. Utah's Water Use Is Why.

Decades of diversions for farms and lawns have pushed the lake toward collapse — threatening air quality, ecosystems, and a multibillion-dollar economy.

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Environment

California's Biggest Reservoir Is Melting Earlier Every Year

The Sierra snowpack stores a third of the state's water. As it melts sooner, the entire system built around its timing is straining.

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Policy

New Mexico Wants to Reuse Oilfield Water. Should It?

The Permian Basin generates billions of barrels of contaminated 'produced water.' In a drought-stricken state, that volume is tempting — and contentious.

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Policy

The Colorado River's Oldest Water Rights Belong to Tribes

Native nations hold some of the most senior — and largest — claims on the river. After a century on the sidelines, they're shaping its future.

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Policy

Water Bills Are Rising Faster Than Incomes

Decades of deferred investment are coming due. As utilities raise rates, a quiet affordability crisis is spreading — with no federal safety net.

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Cities

Los Angeles Is Learning to Drink the Rain

A city built to flush stormwater to the sea is now racing to capture it — recharging aquifers and cutting reliance on imported water.

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Health

The EPA Set PFAS Limits. Now Utilities Face the Bill.

The first national limits on 'forever chemicals' will force thousands of water systems to test for and remove PFAS — at a cost of billions.

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Cities

Cash for Grass: How Turf Rebates Conquered the West

The Las Vegas model — paying residents to tear out lawns — has become the most replicated water-conservation program in the arid United States.

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