A Most Precious Commodity

Mark Udall is working in Congress, with Ken Salizar, to give Colorado Water to New Mexico. There are some Republicans in on the game, to their shame, but Udall appears to be trying to aid his New Mexico cousin, Rep. Tom Udall, while selling Colorado "down the river."

But there is still more. In a more recent House hearing on its version of the Navajo settlement act, HR1970, Colorado congressman Mark Udall, apparently acting as surrogate for his cousin, New Mexico congressman Tom Udall who is HR1970's sponsor, lit into the fretting Bob Johnson, Reclamation's new commissioner, who is obviously only carrying stinging coals for OMB.

Declaring himself the undying friend of the Indian, Udall said OMB had to get over its queasiness about how the public was being asked to spend its money, for after all hadn't Governor Richardson promised at least $75 million toward a tax bill that will easily exceed $1 billion in construction costs alone? Wasn't that enough he intoned? Never once did Mark Udall, the man who would be the next Democratic senator from Colorado, ask questions concerning the baffling hydrologic study; never once did he elicit concern over the adverse impact this settlement would have on Colorado's legitimate rights to water in the Colorado River under the interstate compact; and never once did he show concern that more irrigation for the Navajo might actually cause them to lose more money than presently.

This is came from a long article by Phil Doe, who once worked in the Interior Department, and is chair of Citizens Progressive Alliance in Littleton, Colorado. Read it all, and weep!