Officials from the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District will travel to Washington next week to lobby for the Arkansas Valley Conduit. The district has pushed the $330 million conduit for years, but learned Thursday there may be a threat to some of the gains made last year. President Bush is looking at blocking $11 billion in earmarks in the federal spending bill he has already signed. Among the earmarks is a $600,000 appropriation for the conduit from the State and Tribal Assistance Grant program of the Environmental Protection Agency, said Christine Arbogast, Southeastern lobbyist. “The president may announce an executive order not to fund the earmarks,” Arbogast said. “That would set off a big political battle, a bipartisan battle, that could go all the way to the Supreme Court.” Even stalling the appropriation would be another setback for the conduit, which is trying to move studies ahead after a year without much action.

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