The water has nothing to do with the condition of the meat. Two most important things are time since death, NOT since poorly shot and temp of enviroment. The skin of the deer is a natural insulator so it is some what irrelavent what the water temp is. The conditon of the meat is more caused by the time since death. If you shot a poor shot and had to wait past the normal 30 minutes to go after it, you probably shot it close to dark. Depending on the shot placement of course, it has been my experience that it really does take a gut shot deer 4 hours + to die from a gut shot. Back in my early years I would find them still barely alive at sun up the next morning. I think in general it is safe to assume a liver shot deer lived at least 2 hours after being hit. So say you shot the deer at 5 PM in the late season, the deer will probably not die until 7 or 8 PM. You don't sleep for beans and get up and go after it about 7 the next morning when the sun is up enough so you can see. This is only 12 hours since death and in the late season shoudln't be a problem. If it is early season, you would shoot it about 8 PM and the deer would die about 10 PM. Sun up the next day is around 6 AM so it is about 8 hours. Even though it is warmer out the time is less. If it is warm the water is cooler and if it is cold the water is warmer. The natural insualtion of the skin and hair maintains a rather cosntant body temp so I think most all of the time the meat would be good to eat.
Most important is to get the animal opened up and cooled down as best you can.
I think alot of guys use the "spoiled meat" thing as an excuse to not go look for the animal and thus not have to admitt that they shot a poor shot.
Just my 2 pennys worth, two old tarnished pennys with 40 some years of experience.
Kip