John Fleck of the Albuquerque Journal decided to deconstruct the McCain-Colorado River Compact brouhaha and penned an excellent column on the episode.
As John observes, the "gotcha" game has descended upon the Western water realm:
McCain's political opponents saw an opening and pounced, arguing that the Arizona senator's comments amounted to the opening round in a war by rapidly growing lower basin states like California and Arizona to steal water from places like New Mexico and Colorado.
The political world exploded with claims that McCain wanted to steal the upper basin's water. The Obama campaign set up a conferecne call for reporters to pile on.
As John correctly notes, no one person or state can reopen the compact for renegotiation; all seven states must agree to renegotiate. The Upper Basin states - WY, CO, UT and NM - would likely see such a decision as a losing proposition.
I am no longer a stakeholder in this so it matters little what I think. But I'll repeat what I said in my original post:
Imagine having the temerity to suggest that a 1922 agreement, negotiated when conditions were quite different from the present, be modified to reflect current and future hydroclimatological and demographic realities! The height of idiocy!
One thing's for sure - no renegotiation will occur in my lifetime.
“The hydrographers and experts advise me that a 20-year record on a river is adequate in its completeness and includes enough years to warrant an assumption that the average there deduced would be the average flow of the river in the future.” -- Delph Carpenter, Colorado water lawyer and one of the architects of the Colorado River Compact (as quoted in John Fleck's column)
Michael,
"One thing's for sure - no renegotiation will occur in my lifetime."
Never say never. I never thought that the Berlin Wall would fall, never thought gas would be at five bucks a gallon either.
"Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!" ('Let do and let pass, the world goes on by itself!'). Translation = Leave the Compact as-is, don't upset the apple cart.
I can not possibly see where it would work to any state's advantage to re-negotiate the compact. Can you imagine the parties that would show up at the table to discuss the new distribution?
However, the world is full of Lawyers.
Just my $.02 worth.
dw
Posted by: dw | August 25, 2008 at 11:11 PM