McCain now says Western water pact should stand

DENVER – Sen. John McCain has backed off his comment that a key Western water agreement should be renegotiated, but Democrats signaled they plan to pummel him for his remarks, which even Republicans in swing-state Colorado denounced.

The GOP presidential candidate told the Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain last week that the 1922 Colorado River Compact ought to be “renegotiated over time.” But in a letter Wednesday to Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., McCain wrote that his comments were misconstrued.

“Let me clear that I do not advocate renegotiation of the compact,” the letter said. McCain aides said the letter was e-mailed across the West after even fellow Republicans derided McCain for suggesting the water agreement may need to be retooled.

The Colorado River is one of the most important water sources in the West, and the 1922 compact allocates the river among the lower basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – and the upper basin states – Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

A second agreement signed last year a 2007 was designed to ease tension among the compact states caused by a long-term drought.

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Source: San Diego Union Tribune

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