Here's a story from the Rocky Mountain News [August 25, 2003, "Water pact suggested"] about Referendum A. From the article, "Western Slope legislators and two committees of Club 20, the region's lobbying and promotional organization, are strongly opposed to the measure. It doesn't protect the river basins from which water might be taken, they say. They want more provision for mitigation and compensation."

Representative Scott McInnis has an editorial in today's Rocky Mountain News [August 25, 2003, "Speakout: A fair, unifying water compromise"] about Referendum A. He would like to see a special session of the Colorado Legislature called to deal with two issues around the referendum. First, he is asking that the legislature add a protection clause so that any water moved out of a basin would be offset with compensatory storage in that basin in the model of Green Mountain and Ruedi Resevoirs. Second, he wants assurances that the monies set aside by the referendum will not be use to buy water rights. Says McInnis, "I think that most would agree that this water storage referendum should be about 'bricks and mortar,' about expanding physical storage capacity and promoting conservation through greater storage efficiency, not about underwriting legal fees and acquisition of agricultural water rights. Accordingly, the legislature should construct a firewall that prevents the expenditure of bonded monies for these nonstorage purposes."
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