By Matt Weiser | NewsDeeply
New federal estimates suggest serious water shortages on the Colorado River are closer than thought. While Arizona water users try to cooperate on a conservation fix, one group of farmers stands in the way of a compromise.
SERIOUS WATER SHORTAGES on the Colorado River could be less than two years away, according to new federal estimates. Yet after 19 years of drought, just 500 farmers in one Arizona county may decide the fate of the entire Southwest: By holding tight to their own temporary water supply, they could stall a conservation plan designed to save the entire region from water shortages.
Pinal County, sandwiched between Phoenix and Tucson, is the third-largest farming county in Arizona and 54th in the nation, generating about $1 billion in annual sales, according to United States Department of
Agriculture statistics. Beef cattle and milk generate more than half of that income, with cotton and alfalfa the next largest commodities.
Only about 540 farms in Pinal County depend on irrigation, according to the USDA. Those farmers can thank imported Colorado River water and the federal government for their success. Their irrigation water comes from the Central Arizona Project, a 336-mile canal completed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1993, which diverts a portion of the river’s flow deep into the Sonoran Desert.
Related: Arizona may have to cut back on water use in 2020, outlook says
Under a proposed drought contingency plan (DCP) aimed at saving Arizona residents from severe water shortages, Pinal County farmers could lose access to all their Colorado River water. If that happens, more than a third of the county’s 1.2 million acres of farmland could be put out of production, said Pinal County farmer Dan Thelander.
He said they would fight to prevent that.
