Colorado Water
HB 1177 is the subject of this article from the Cortez Journal. They write, "Penry's bill creates a 27-member interbasin compact committee that will include experts in environmental, municipal, agricultural, industrial and recreation to decide how to handle interbasin compact negotiations. It also creates a round-table in each of the seven water divisions, along with round-tables for the metropolitan areas of the South Platte and Arkansas river basins to provide forums. The model for the Colorado plan is the Colorado River Compact, which divvies up water from the river between Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, and to so-called lower basin states, California, Nevada and Arizona. With populations growing and the drought sticking around for a fifth year in some places, the government has been encouraging states and everyone else to conserve and cooperate. Two years ago, California water agencies reached a sharing agreement aimed at reducing how much river water it takes. Russell George, Colorado's director of natural resources who helped draft the legislation, said the commission would not be able to change Colorado law, which recognizes water as an individual property right that cannot be touched. Several lawmakers objected to the proposal because of claims from supporters that the best use of water would be determined by the amount of money it can bring."
Howling at a Waning Moon: "WASHINGTON (March 3, 2005) -- Members of the U.S. House of Representatives today introduced bipartisan legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposal allowing partially treated human sewage to be routinely dumped into the nation's waterways. The authors of the Save Our Waters From Sewage Act are Congressmen Bart Stupak (D-MI), E. Clay Shaw, Jr. (R-FL), Mark Steven Kirk (R-IL) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ)."
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