craigdailypress.com

Sen. Jack Taylor's allegations that his opponent, Jay Fetcher, failed to defend Western Slope water aren't an issue in the election, Fetcher said Friday.

Twice in the past week, Taylor has said Fetcher failed to protect the Western Slope's water when he voted for a reapportionment plan in Nov. 2001 that shifted Grand County and the headwaters of the Colorado River into the district of an Eastern Slope senator.

"Personally, I feel this is a non-issue," Fetcher said. "My vote ... does not mean the water went with it (to Grand County)."

Fetcher is a Democrat rancher from Clark. He's challenging Taylor, a Steamboat Springs Republican who has served in the state Legislature for 12 years.

Fetcher said he has "a very clear conscience" on the vote. The state's Constitution requires that a certain population live in each senate district.

The only way to satisfy the requirement while keeping counties whole was to move Grand County, he said.

Grand County previously was in Senate District 8, for which Taylor and Fetcher are competing.

The reapportionment committee looked at alternatives to moving Grand County, but those would have had "a domino effect" on the rest of the state.

"We felt we had to do what had the least domino effect," he said.

Ideas Fetcher has pitched in this race to protect Western Slope water include creating water conservation easements similar to land conservation easements and strengthening recreational water rights.

If re-elected, Taylor said he will fight for basin of origin protection for Western Slope water.