Gov. Bill Ritter Tuesday announced an agreement to end the dispute between two commercial rafting outfitters and a private landowner along Colorado’s Taylor River that prompted a heated legislative battle this past session.

A bill that could buoy or sink Colorado's rafting industry and affect hundreds of thousands of river enthusiasts and landowners may have floated through the House, but it's on the rocks in the Senate. The Capitol battle pits two core Colorado values against each other: the love of the outdoors and the allegiance to personal property rights.

Following a tour of local waterways in mid-September, several organizations are considering the Taylor Park Dam as a potential source of hydroelectric power generation.