Shock and outrage over the fate of water flowing down the Gunnison River continue to echo across the Western Slope. Three legislators met recently to turn up the political heat on state officials who played a part in Attorney General John Suthers' filing of objections to stipulations created to resolve the fight over how much water eventually will be allowed to flow through Black Canyon National Park...Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction minced no words: "The funding for the Colorado Water Conservation Board projects is in the appropriations committee that I chair. That bill was up for hearing and I took it off the table. And I will not allow it to be considered until such time as we get answers bout why the attorney general intervened in this caste that we thought was settled." This is Colorado standing up to the federal government...The federal government is trying to assert itself ahead of the old existing state water rights...If the federal government can get a senior water right on the Gunnison River, it can do it on other Wester Slope rivers, too.

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