Category: 2010 Colorado Elections

2010 Colorado elections: Rafting rift update

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From The Denver Post (Jessica Fender):

Gov. Bill Ritter thought the situation could be resolved in a better way when he directed Schumacher, a neighboring outfitter and a Jackson-Shaw representative to develop a use agreement that allowed the two rafting companies to continue their operations, said spokesman Evan Dreyer. “The two sides have a very specific conflict,” Dreyer said. “Seems like they should be able to find some common ground and reach a compromise that doesn’t require a new state law.”

Eric Anderson, a spokesman for a group of landowners fighting the bill and the initiative, said the Schumacher-Shaw matchup upset a balance between river rafters and private landowners that had been working for years.

More 2010 Colorado elections coverage here.

2010 Colorado elections: Rafting rift makes the national news

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From The Wall Street Journal (Stephanie Simon):

That blissful setting is fairly well destroyed, [Steve Roberts] contends, when dozens of rubber rafts come bumping past, crammed with tourists of a less contemplative sort. “They come bebopping right on through…going over the dam I built for the fish, yelling ‘Whee!’ ” Mr. Roberts says. “I’ve got 60 boats a day doing that. My guests are unhappy.”

Too bad, the rafting community responds. The state constitution declares Colorado’s river water a public resource. Private landowners can reasonably lay claim to the structural frame of a river—the bottom, the banks, perhaps even the boulders. “But that doesn’t mean they own the water,” says Duke Bradford, who owns two commercial rafting companies. “You can’t privatize a river.”

More 2010 Colorado elections coverage here. More HB 10-1188 coverage here.

2010 elections: Hickenlooper tours the west slope

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From the Glenwood Springs Post Independent (John Colson):

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said on Friday that, if elected governor of Colorado, he would work to cut government red tape for businesses and to get warring factions of the state’s water users to work together on critical water issues…

“There must be some way to protect the heritage landscapes that make Colorado what it is, but at the same time … maybe we end up with a little bit of oil and gas in a few places where it might really mar the landscape,” he mused. “But in most cases, the oil and gas is where we’ve already got roads, we’ve already got oil production. And the question is, how to we do it and make sure that we don’t harm the ranches or the citizens around it?”

Examples of his environmental ethic, he said, include efforts to get natural gas companies to reveal all the chemical components they use in hydraulic fracturing fluids, which has been the focus of intense debate concerning possible contamination of ground water supplies in the drilling process.

Also, he pointed to what he described as a 20 percent reduction, per capita, in water consumption rates in Denver, as a way of avoiding the need to poach water from the Western Slope.

More coverage from The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel (Gary Harmon):

“What makes Denver Denver is the success of the West Slope,” Hickenlooper said at the Mesa County Democratic Assembly in the Central High School auditorium. “You would be amazed at how many people who live in Denver would really rather live in Grand Junction.”

During his tenure as mayor of Denver, he changed the culture of the Denver Water board to encourage water conservation, a development cheered by the Mesa County Democrats. “Every drop of water that can possibly be kept on the West Slope should be kept on the West Slope,” Hickenlooper said.

More 2010 Colorado elections coverage here.

HB 10-1188 (‘Row vs. Wade’) debate spawns 24 ballot initiatives for the November election

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A record 24 ballot initiatives about rafting were filed March 26. State Representative Curry — the legislator responsible for introducing the original bill that sparked this debate — warned the private property people that this might happen. It’s not unusual in a state with Colorado’s history of citizen initiatives to see some action but I think everyone is surprised by the number.

There is strong public sentiment in favor of a right to float as there are strong private property feelings.

I wonder if the state legislature will pass something for a vote in November?

Here’s a report from The Denver Post (Lynn Bartels). From the article:

“We knew this was coming, but not 20 measures,” said Rep. Kathleen Curry, U-Gunnison, who sponsored the rafting bill. House Bill 1188, dubbed “Row vs. Wade” by House Republicans, would allow rafters to float through private property with incidental contact and not be accused of civil or criminal trespass…

Curry and others speculated that the river-rafting proposals might be pulled if some sort of compromise is reached. Outdoor enthusiasts said they filed their ballot proposals to ensure Colorado rivers stay open to the public. “We’re glad we did,” said Duke Bradford, spokesman for the Colorado River Outfitters…

But Eric Anderson, spokesman for the Creekside Coalition, said the group was formed in 1994 and represents farmers, ranchers, anglers and private landowners. “Until we’re assured that the commercial rafters’ one-sided proposals are not moving forward this year, we need to keep our options open to ensure that property rights in Colorado are protected,” he said…

Both sides say they will stand down and withdraw their initiatives if a solution can be reached in the legislature; however, both sides want what the other appears unwilling to give. Curry nonetheless has indicated she will press on to conference committee to try and strip a Senate amendment from her bill that required the issued to be studied for the next six months.

Now the process of collecting enough signatures from registered voters begins.

More coverage from Curtis Wackerle writing for the Aspen Daily News. From the article:

On Friday, the deadline for filing text that could potentially make it onto the November ballot, rafting proponents filed two separate initiatives. Both would secure the right to float and make incidental contact with private property on the river bank without fear of trespass. One specifically mentions float fishermen. The proposals, however, do not limit the right to historically run rivers just to commercial rafting companies, as Curry’s bill did.

Bob Hamel with the Colorado River Outfitters Association said that the legislative bill attempted compromise, but if they go to the ballot box, right-to-float advocates will be asking for everything they want. “We need the support” of all manner of boaters: commercial, private, whitewater and float fishermen, Hamel said.

Property rights groups filed 20 prospective ballot initiatives of their own on Friday, all with some variation of the theme that boaters cannot float through private property without the consent of the landowner. “The public has no right to use the waters overlaying private property for recreational purposes without the consent of the owner of the private property,” reads one version of the ballot question. Other initiatives filed by property rights groups explicitly state that river outfitters, not private landowners, are liable for any injury, death or damage that occurs while floating the river. A statement from a group called the Creekside Coalition paints the ballot initiatives as a counterplay to what it calls “a fundamental and far-reaching political assault on private property rights and the state’s agricultural heritage” by the rafting industry.

More Colorado November 2010 elections coverage here.