A plan to protect Pinal County farmers from impacts of Central Arizona Project shortages now looks like it may take a huge bite out of the farmers’ water supplies instead.
At a meeting Wednesday of a committee looking at a plan to protect Lake Mead from future steep declines, a top CAP official said the first shortage could slice Pinal County farmers’ share of Colorado River water to as little as 80,000 acre-feet, based on tentative estimates.
That would amount to a cut of more than two-thirds of the 250,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water those farmers were due to receive this year, and nearly three-fourths of what they took in 2017.
It would force farmers there to take 55 to 60 percent of their land out of production, said Paul Orme, a Phoenix attorney who serves as a lobbyist for four Pinal County irrigation districts.
