As drought deepens, Navajo water system strains under pressure
FARMINGTON
The Animas River does not look still or small.
It moves with force. Water folds over dark rocks in tight, repeating waves, then breaks into white foam that rises and disappears almost as quickly as it forms. The current looks steady and muscular, not wild enough to read as floodwater, but strong enough to show how even a narrower channel can carry real weight through the basin.
The sound is a constant rush, a soft but insistent rolling hiss as water presses over stone and slips through shallow drops. There are no sharp crashes, just the layered noise of current rubbing against rock and itself, the kind of sound that can seem calm until one remembers what the river is connected to downstream.
That matters because the Animas is part of a much larger system.
To read the full article, please see the April 9, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
Get instant access to this story by purchasing one of our many e-edition subscriptions HERE at our Navajo Times Store.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow