in november 2002, colorado voters rejected owens’ water storage initiative, referendum a. the referendum failed to win a single county in the state, as opponents successfully savaged the measure as a “blank check”. owens would later joke, “it takes a particularly adept governor to lose a water referendum in the face of a 300-year drought.” while the initiative was supported by most colorado newspapers and business groups, it was opposed by the environmental community and many on colorado's western slope who feared it would lead to the front range using more western slope water.