Melody Edwards

Reporter & Podcast Host, Wyoming Public Media · 1 appearance on the record.

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journalisthostauthorwyomingpublicmedia.org/people/melodie-edwards ↗

She created and hosts the PRX-distributed narrative podcast The Modern West, reporting on water conflicts, agriculture, and rural issues across the Mountain West. A recipient of multiple regional Edward R. Murrow and PMJA awards, she also authors books including Hikes Around Fort Collins and a young adult novel.

5statements → 5claims → 4claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.4/5average certainty → 2/5average debate potential →

4 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

1 prediction · 4 assertions · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 4 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Melody argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas have completely depleted their groundwater
“There's parts of Kansas that are, really, have completely, you know, lost all their water. Parts of Oklahoma, parts of Texas that just don't have that water source anymore.”
Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 4:34 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
100% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Melody Edwards on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Melody Edwards said on the Green Blueprint that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Supported
Parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas have completely depleted their groundwater
“There's parts of Kansas that are, really, have completely, you know, lost all their water. Parts of Oklahoma, parts of Texas that just don't have that water source anymore.”
Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 4:34 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching
Assertion Supported
Wyoming ranchers passed law shifting burden of proof onto well applicants
“They were successful in passing a bill to the applicant to prove that the, that these permits would not injure the neighbors and other water users.”
Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 18:25 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wyoming well approvals could spread water speculation across the American West
“It looks like the state engineer is going to, you know, issue these permits and allow the, this kind of drilling, which means that that could happen again elsewhere in the state. And then other states look at what Wyoming's doing. We are a leader in water law …”
Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 19:36 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching
Assertion Supported
Proposed Wyoming wells would draw 1.5 billion gallons of water annually
“Yeah, so it would be enough water to cover 4700 acres with a foot of water which is one and a half billion gallons, so it's a really large amount of water, and that would be enough to supply a city of actually 13,000 people a year,”
Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 11:38 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching
Assertion Supported
Depleted Ogallala Aquifer will take roughly 6,000 years to regenerate
“Once it's depleted, it's, you know, gonna take like 6000 years for it to regenerate itself.”
Melody Edwards Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 2:04 The frontline of water conflicts: ranching

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
The frontline of water conflicts: ranching Aug 24, 2022 11m
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