Editor’s Note: This story was initially published in Western Water Notes, a Substack newsletter published by independent environmental reporter Daniel Rothberg.
The headwaters of the Muddy River, a tributary of the Colorado River, take their form with water invisible to us. They start with groundwater. The Muddy River, as it charts its course to Lake Mead, relies on groundwater-fed springs as its primary supply. And for the last two decades, those springs have faced the threat of groundwater overuse.
Like so many rivers in the dry Southwest, the Muddy River is stretched thin. For more than a century, it has been divided up with some water rights “vested” (meaning they predate Nevada’s statutory scheme for regulating water use). Las Vegas currently has rights to a portion of the river, using it to boost its Colorado River supply. The springs feeding the Muddy River support an ecosystem that includes the rare Moapa Dace, an endemic species that despite many threats to its habitat over the years, persists today.