Will Water Help Obama Win Colorado?

John McCain’s recent comments to a Colorado newspaper that a 1922 seven-state agreement governing the use of the Colorado River “obviously needs to be renegotiated over time” may sound completely innocuous, perhaps even sensible, to most people.

But to Colorado voters, McCain might as well have said he likes to eat cute puppies for breakfast. It’s hard to explain to a non-Coloradan the outsized significance of the Colorado River–and its coveted snowmelt water–within the state. “Over my dead body,” Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) said in a statement. To which Republican senate candidate Bob Schaffer added, “Over my cold, dead, political carcass.” Get the point?

In this arid region of the country, rural farmers depend on the river’s water, and after enduring the worst drought since the 18th century in recent years, any notion that Scottsdale golfers and Bellagio gamblers need more water than they’re currently allotted is basically Rule #1 under What Not to Say in Colorado. Just as Yucca Mountain is a nuclear issue in Nevada-pun intended-Coloradans often quote Mark Twain, who’s rumored to have said, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” Many local pundits in Colorado are already asking whether “McCain just lo[st] Colorado.”

Read full article

Source: NewsWeek

For more information on water conservation, visit www.nuprana.com