ALBUQUERQUE — John McCain stirred up a hornet’s nest in Colorado last week when he suggested the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which includes New Mexico, should be renegotiated due to increasing population in western states.

During an interview with southern Colorado’s Pueblo Chieftain, McCain said:

 

I don’t think there’s any doubt the major, major issue is water and can be as important as oil. So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties. I think that there’s a movement amongst the governors to try, if not, quote, renegotiate, certainly adjust to the new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource.

The Colorado River Compact is a water sharing agreement between seven western states regarding water that approximately 30 million people depend upon. The fact that the compact was negotiated in 1922, nearly 90 years ago, illustrates that the use of water resources has always been a complicated and at times contentious issue in the west, and increasingly is so. For this reason, McCain’s comments brought widespread condemnation in Colorado from the state’s top political leaders, plus our own governor, Bill Richardson.

“It is disconcerting that Sen. McCain would suggest that the Colorado River Compact be renegotiated, since that would place the water supplies of New Mexico and the other upper Colorado states in jeopardy to meet the water needs of Arizona and the other lower Colorado states," Richardson told the Independent. "New Mexicans should recognize that this rhetoric is aimed directly at our water supplies and reject it outright.”

Under the 1922 compact, the states are divided into the "upper basin states" of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and the "lower basin states" of California, Arizona and Nevada. The upper basin states agree to deliver 7.5 million acre feet per year to the lower basin states, averaged over 10 year intervals. In 1944 Mexico was added to the compact, receiving 1.5 million acre feet per year.

After the split, the four upper basin states share the remainder. Of that, Colorado retains 51.75 percent, Utah gets 23 percent, Wyoming claims 14 percent and then New Mexico gets 11.25 percent.

This division between the upper and lower basins is generally seen as a 50-50 split, but has been criticized in more recent years for not taking into account drought conditions. For this reason, just last year a set of interim guidelines was implemented by the secretary of interior that provides for allocation of the water depending on the water levels of Lake Mead.

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar told the Chieftain that renegotiating the compact was "absolutely wrong" and that it would happen "over his dead body," because doing so would be "… an anathema to the fundamental principles of Colorado’s water rights and our compacts."

The two candidates for Colorado’s open Senate seat were in agreement on the topic also, according to the Durango Herald:

 

"He will not get a more fierce fight from a United States senator than he will have from me," said Bob Schaffer, McCain’s fellow Republican and the party’s Senate candidate.

Schaffer’s opponent, Democrat Mark Udall, also piled on McCain. "On this issue he couldn’t be more wrong. Nothing is more crucial for Colorado than water, and I oppose any suggestion that the federal government should get involved in how we share it with Arizona, California or any other state," Udall said in a prepared statement.

 

Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter told the Chieftain: "Just last year, the seven states entered into a new implementing agreement, and that agreement is working as intended. It would be sheer folly to re-open the compact at a time like this when all of the states are working cooperatively on this issue.”

Environmental organizations have condemned McCain’s comments as well. Rob Smith, the Sierra Club’s southwest regional director, said in a statement that the Colorado River is threatened by climate change plus environmental hazards posed by such things as uranium mining in Arizona. Citing the January 2008 Journal of Water Resources Research, the Sierra Club statement said scientists predict a 10 percent to 30 percent drop in the river’s water flow due to global warming.

"McCain’s proposal misses the bigger picture that there will likely be less water for everyone in the Southwest due to climate change. And there are new threats to drinking water in the river from proposed uranium mines in Arizona, " Smith said. "Instead of threatening a diminishing resource, it would be better to help states and communities with water conservation projects and stream restoration."

McCain has since tried to explain his comments through his spokesperson Tom Kise, who said according to an Associated Press report that McCain was not proposing to reopen the compact:

 

“He’s talking about ongoing conversations, conversations that happen this year, next year, 10, 20, 30 years down the road,” Kise said.

Kise said McCain knows global warming is changing water conditions in the West, and that means the states need to talk. “As long as water is going to be an issue in the West, there should be an open conversation among all parties,” Kise said.

 

Stay tuned. McCain probably hasn’t heard the end of this one.