In a letter to U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Loveland), U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is backing away from politcally radioactive comments he made that the Colorado River compact should be renegotiated.

"My recent remarks may have been mistakenly construed as a call to rescind the Colorado River Compact and commence negotiations for new water allocations. Let me be clear that I do not advocate renegotiation of the compact," he wrote.

Last week he told the Pueblo Chieftan: "I don't think there's any doubt the major, major issue is water and can be as important as oil. So the compact that is in effect, obviously, needs to be renegotiated over time amongst the interested parties."