Republic's coverage of Colorado River issues wins an Edward R. Murrow Award
The Arizona Republic's coverage of the drought and related water issues on the Colorado River last year has won an Edward R. Murrow award for best news series, the RTDNA announced Tuesday.
The award, named for the legendary television journalist and presented by the Radio Television Digital News Association, recognizes broadcast and digital reporting across the nation. The Republic and azcentral were recognized alongside other digital news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA TODAY, the Detroit Free Press and ProPublica.
Republic environment reporter Brandon Loomis and photojournalist Mark Henle traveled up and down the Colorado River throughout 2022 to chronicle the effects of relentless drought on the waterway, meeting people from the headwaters of the Green River in Wyoming all the way to farmers in Yuma and California's Imperial Valley.
The stories also examined the 100-year-old rules used to manage the river across seven states, among dozens of Indigenous communities and in Mexico. Drought and climate change have stretched the river's flow, which supplies water for more than 40 million people on farms and in cities.
Loomis and Henle produced a series of stories, starting in January 2022 with visits to farms in Pinal County, where growers faced the loss of water from the river for the first time in decades. Stories also showed the stunning effects of low water levels at Lake Powell, where recreational users and power supplies were trying to adapt to shrinking resources. Loomis and Henle also visited Las Vegas and other cities on the river to show the different approaches to conserving water as deepening cutbacks loomed.
The centerpiece of the series looked at the "Law of the River," an agreement forged in 1923, when the population of the seven states was a fraction of what it is now and when the river flowed at levels that, hydrologists would later determine, were unusually high.
The series included five stories, scores of photographs, several videos and an interactive story map that helped readers trace the journey down the Colorado. Republic producer Shelby Slade designed the story pages and built the story map for the series.
"These stories, as with reporting in prior years by Brandon and Mark, elevated the people and places most at risk by over-deployment of the Colorado," said Greg Burton, executive editor of The Arizona Republic. "We're honored by this recognition, and inspired to tell more stories that lead to a deeper understanding of the river, and better, more sustainable, water law."
Two other Arizona news outlets also won Murrow awards: Arizona Public Media in Tucson won for news documentary among small television markets for a profile of water harvesting expert Brad Lancaster; and Cronkite News/Arizona PBS at Arizona State University won for audio feature news reporting in the student category for a story about whether a federal agricultural aid program left out Black farmers.
USA TODAY's "States of America" won for best news documentary in the large digital division for its look at battles over education in Florida.
The award winners will be recognized at the Edward R. Murrow Awards Gala on Oct. 9 in New York City.
Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow The Republic's environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Republic wins an Edward R. Murrow Award for Colorado River series
