By Tony Davis | Arizona Daily Star
The agency that operates the CAP wants to spend $34 million on farmland and water rights from a rural slice of northwestern Arizona along the Colorado River to slake the thirst of growing Tucson and Phoenix.
The Central Arizona Project’s governing board voted 13-2 Thursday to take the first key step toward importing the river water into the state’s midsection. But the agency is meeting fierce resistance from officials where the water would come from — rural Mohave County.
Meeting at the Omni Tucson National Resort Thursday, the board OK’d a purchase agreement to buy seven farms in the Bullhead City area totaling 2,203 acres. The CAP district, which serves Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties, will also get nearly 13,900 acre-feet of water rights from the farms, which are owned by a pair of New York City-based investment firms.
