John Hickenlooper delivered a recorded video address at the Colorado Water Congress that sounds so generic we suspect it can be used at dozens of campaign events the sometimes-candidate is skipping.
The hodgepodge of related issues the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate touched on in his 15-minute video to water managers included COVID-19, broadband internet, trade, tariffs, forest fires, climate change, and that one time he visited the Western Slope in 2003 and people applauded him.
Joey Bunch with Colorado Politics is the only reporter we’ve found who actually covered the event, so we’re completely relying on him to tell us if Hickenlooper was coherent, sober, or speaking in complete sentences.
Conversely, Bunch gives a thorough rundown of the multitude of water issues addressed by Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner who was obviously well-versed on water issues.
More water storage, that’s what Colorado needs most, Gardner said. And while conservation is important, we can’t conserve our way out of our water shortfall.
“We have such diverse water needs in our state,” Gardner said, noting his Yuma County community depends on groundwater and that a canoe would dam up the nearest river 30 miles away. He also cited his work on the Arkansas Valley Conduit to deliver fresh water to the parched farm region east of Pueblo, a project on the books since 1983 that only this year got federal funding, as well as other funding for endangered species recovery on the Colorado River.
What did Hickenlooper have to say about the state’s water supply?
“Colorado’s water belongs to all of us, and without long-term solutions that benefit the entire state we are setting ourselves up for failure.”
Bunch reminds us Hickenlooper did ask for a water plan while he was governor. He just forgot to pay for it.