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Steamboat Springs — Congressman Scott McInnis thinks it's time to give Californians a little tough love.

The Republican from Grand Junction is throwing his weight behind a federal decision to curb surplus waters California is taking from Colorado.

California has been using more than its legal share of water from the Colorado River.

U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton recently reprimanded the state on its excess and ordered compliance with a 1929 federal water pact.

The California congressional delegation is pressuring Norton to repeal her decision.

McInnis is asking her to hold the line.

"This is a long-overdue wakeup call for California's overindulgence of Western water," McInnis said. "The federal government shouldn't cede one inch to the state of California."

The Colorado House and Senate are moving forward with a joint resolution that will ask Norton to stand firm on her decision, said Assistant House Majority Leader Al White, R-Winter Park.

"It's not going to be an East Slope/West Slope water issue," White said. State lawmakers would make a unified stand on holding California accountable to its agreement, he said.

Norton's decision touches all areas of the state, including the people who depend on the Yampa River Basin, because Coloradans may need that surplus some day, McInnis spokesman Blair Jones said.

McInnis and Utah Congressman Chris Cannon sent a letter to Norton Thursday urging her to hold California accountable for years of exceeding its share of water from the Colorado River while other states in the Colorado River Basin have honored the 1929 Colorado River Compact. The agreement set forth the amount of water each of the seven basin states could tap from the Colorado River.

The agreement allows California to take 4.4 million acre-feet from the river annually. One acre-foot of water translates to almost 326,000 gallons, or enough to yearly serve two families of four, McInnis said. California has regularly exceeded that limit; it is currently 800,000 acre-feet over its allotted limit.

The Interior Department had been working with California water agencies on a plan to gradually bring the state into compliance with the 4.4 million acre-feet limit by 2015.

The plan would have given California a "soft landing," Jones said.

But the water agencies have failed to reach a consensus, and Norton made a decision for them.

"If this administration didn't get tough, my suspicion is that California water users would have been strongly disinclined from ever moving toward the 4.4 agreement," McInnis said. "Sometimes, a little tough love is the only thing that works."

McInnis and Cannon were prompted to contact Norton after the California delegation accused the federal government of impeding its path to agreement rather than facilitating a solution.

Eighteen other House members, including the entire Colorado delegation, have endorsed the letter.

"With drought ravaging the West, the time has come for all of the Colorado River Basin states, particularly California, to live within the compact," Cannon said.

McInnis is happy to have the support of state lawmakers.

"A unanimous vote of the Colorado General Assembly would send the strongest possible message that this matter must be resolved with each state living up to its promises and commitments," he said.

Future growth and current drought demand California adheres to the agreement it made more than 70 years ago, McInnis said.

"In the West," he said, "water is thicker than blood."

-- To reach Danie Harrelson call 871-4203

or e-mail dharrelson@steamboatpilot.com