I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
ALBUQUERQUE — In a conference call arranged for reporters Wednesday by the Barack Obama campaign, Colorado’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar said that opening up the Colorado River Compact to renegotiation would lead to a “water war.”
“We have a saying in the rural west,” Salazar said. “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.”
That may be the case, but what’s happening at the moment is a war of words.
Salazar was responding to comments made by John McCain last week that the river compact might need to be renegotiated due to growth in the West.
Meanwhile, McCain, during an interview aboard his Straight Talk Express following Wednesday’s Las Cruces town hall meeting, said his comments about renegotiating the water compact are being taken out of context. He said he was not suggesting that Arizona, California and Nevada should take a greater share of the river’s water at the expense of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. He was simply suggesting that those states’ governors get together to talk about the compact.
"To think that I want to take Colorado’s water or anybody’s water is not in line with my 25 years in Congress," McCain said. He added, "To somehow interpret" his comments to mean that he favors less water for states like Colorado or New Mexico "is somebody looking for some headlines… because that’s not what I said."
In a letter to Colorado Republican Sen. Wayne Allard today, Sen. John McCain seemed to back away from his use of the word “renegotiate” when he addressed the topic of the Colorado River Compact. According to an Associated Press report:
The Republican presidential candidate said Wednesday he supports continuing talks on the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which allocates the river’s water, but said "I do not advocate renegotiation of the compact."
But Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, who also participated on the Obama campaign’s conference call, told reporters that the letter simply showed McCain attempting to backpedal for political reasons. “The word ‘renegotiate’ does not have a double meaning,” he said. He also said he was "disconcerted" by McCain’s statement:
Water is a scarce commodity in the arid west. The reworking of the compact was difficult last year, but the seven states came to a fair agreement. McCain’s statement shows a lack of any sense about the usage of that water. He referenced the growth in the West, but it would harm in a significant way the western Colorado agricultural as well as industrial sectors. It showed either naiveté or hostility. I was disconcerted by his statement.
Salazar also called McCain "naïve" when it comes to water, and said his statement demonstrated a fundamental lack of legal understanding about water. He said the compact was negotiated from the start because of population pressures. Salazar added:
Population growth was the impetus for the compact. The upper basin states recognized the lower basin states were going to grow. This is why we negotiated the compact in the first place. For McCain to suggest that growth might mean we need to renegotiate undercuts the very reason for the law.
Salazar wrapped up by saying water is fundamental to Coloradoans, and that they’ll remember McCain’s statement for a long time.
The water compact is an agreement between seven western states that allocated water from the Colorado River. It’s divided between two groups: upper basin states and lower basin states. New Mexico is one of the upper basin states, receiving 11.25 percent of the water after the lower basin states plus Mexico get their portion.
