Colorado Water
The editor of the Pueblo Chieftain has hired a law firm to explore shutting down the proposed pipeline from Pueblo to Colorado Springs, according to the Denver Post [April 3, 2005, "Pueblo newspaper publisher rains wrath on pipeline plan"]. From the article, "Though Colorado Springs already owns the rights to the water, it has not been able to tap into the supply for lack of a pipeline. Colorado Springs Utilities' effort to get the deal rolling led to a series of agreements with the cities of Pueblo and Aurora and the town of Fountain to support expansion of the reservoir, a measure stalled in Congress for three years. Chieftain publisher Bob Rawlings believes, regardless of ownership, the lost water from the Arkansas Valley will hasten the drain on its rural, agricultural economy."
This is interesting since no disputes that Colorado Springs owns the water. It's the impact on the Arkansas valley that is the motivation. Kansas'll be happy if the water stays in the river.
Here's an editorial from the Denver Post dealing with the issue of sharing the limited water in the Colorado River basin [April 3, 2005, "April crucial for the Colorado"]. The seven states that are party to the Colorado River Compact have been instructed to compromise on water use by May 1st. The Post editors write, "But the sticking points are as plentiful and deep as river mud. The key legal document governing the Colorado River, a 1922 interstate compact, says the upper basin must send the lower basin 75 million acre-feet of water over a 10-year period. There's never been a court test of what that phrase means. Some lower-basin water managers wrongly believe the upper basin must deliver 7.5 million acre-feet of water downstream each year, but that's not so. The key is what's happened in the previous 10 years. And in the past decade, the upper basin has sent the lower basin about 100 million acre-feet of water. Under one legal theory, the upper basin isn't obligated to send the lower basin any water at all this year. Both sides should avoid an ugly row. The nearly 30 million people who use the Colorado River for drinking water, irrigation, electricity and recreation want thoughtful leadership. The upper basin should refrain from being needlessly confrontational, and the lower basin should get serious about water conservation and compromise."
Update: Science Blog: "Tiny beetles that munch on saltcedar leaves, shoots and twig bark are helping stop the spread of this rugged, aggressive weed. Also known as tamarisk, saltcedar was brought into the United States in the 1800s to help control erosion. By the mid-1900s, however, saltcedar had become an out-of-control pest, crowding native plants, such as cottonwoods and willows, along streambanks and river channels throughout the American West."
8:26:57 AM 
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