Watch

Films and reporting about Western water. Links are to their own pages. This is a viewing list, not an endorsement. Great Basin Pulse is not affiliated with the organizations named here or anywhere else on this site. Unresolved infrastructure items live on the Basin Watch List, a dated table, not these films.

Video

Practical Engineering Grady Hillhouse’s channel on infrastructure, including dams and water systems. Link the channel, not a single video.

Worth knowing, not embedded

• Cadillac Desert. 1997 PBS series from Marc Reisner’s book, the classic Western-water documentary. Copies on YouTube look unofficial, so this is a description, not an embed.
• Water & Power: A California Heist. 2017. Rental on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
• Last Call at the Oasis. 2011/2012, Colorado River and Lake Mead. Netflix and other paid platforms.

Recent reporting

Marks are original site graphics keyed to the subject, not the outlet's photographs. A job runs three times a day against public-radio, nonprofit, and basin newsroom RSS, plus DRI and TRPA, and keeps stories that are about this water system. Stories from the last two weeks are marked new.

• 7 days old Water board adopts revised waste discharge requirements for Truckee facility Sierra Sun, October 14, 2026.
• 12 days old Sugar Pine Foundation to replant Caldor Fire scar with support from Tahoe Community Foundation Tahoe Daily Tribune, October 9, 2026.
• 13 days old Judge denies effort to remove NV Energy’s attorney from Tract data center lawsuit (updated) This Is Reno, October 8, 2026.
• 14 days old Media and transparency groups challenge secrecy in NV Energy-Tract data center lawsuit This Is Reno, October 7, 2026.
• Bull Fire near Verdi 40% contained, holds at 1,529 acres This Is Reno, October 4, 2026.
• Bull Fire smoke prompts air quality advisory for Reno-Sparks This Is Reno, October 2, 2026.
• Bull Fire starts in hills north of Verdi, updated This Is Reno, October 2, 2026.
• Data centers, Flock cameras and Reno's budget take center stage in tense mayoral forum The Nevada Independent, October 1, 2026.
• Judge weighs effort to remove NV Energy’s attorney from Tract data center lawsuit This Is Reno, September 30, 2026.
• Microplastics Concentrations in the Truckee River Surge During High Spring Flows, New Study Finds Desert Research Institute, September 21, 2026.
• Lombardo doubles down on data centers, offers trimmed tax breaks, ‘commitments’ to wary public This Is Reno, September 19, 2026.
• Nevada's first wastewater-to-drinking-water plant breaks ground in Reno The Nevada Independent, September 14, 2026.
• New Study Offers a Detailed Look at How Wildfire Smoke Impacts Reno’s Air Quality Desert Research Institute, September 10, 2026.
• Developers eye Native nations, tribal communities for new data center projects Nevada Current, September 4, 2026.
• Northern Nevada tribes speak out against data centers KUNR, September 2, 2026. Water Over Data Alliance / Autumn Harry.
• Storey County is a hub for Nevada data centers. It wants to rein in state tax breaks. The Nevada Independent, September 2, 2026.
• Potable water project breaks ground in Northern Nevada University of Nevada, Reno, August 31, 2026. American Flat Advanced Purified Water Facility.
• High temps and drought fuel dozens of fires across the West, including near Reno, Nevada KUNR, August 10, 2026.
• Data centers are thirsty for water. This Nevada region is prepared, at least for now NPR / Mountain West News Bureau, December 1, 2025.
• As AI data centers multiply across the Mountain West, so do fears over water use KUNR / Mountain West News Bureau, October 2025.