$20M needed for Pinal County agriculture and water infrastructure
by Callan Smith | Rose Law Group Reporter
From left Bret Esslin, water resource engineer with Arizona Department of Water Resources, Jordan Rose, Rose Law Group founder and president, Representative David Cook, Senator Frank Pratt, and Ron L. Fleming, Global Water chairman, president and CEO
The big take away from this morning’s Pinal Partnership monthly panel breakfast event was the need for funding to support Pinal County water infrastructure for agriculture.
With the passage of the Drought Contingency Plan (DCP), Pinal County irrigation districts and agriculture lost the Central Arizona Project (CAP) water allotment beginning in 2023. To offset that, the county needs 70,000 acre feet of groundwater pumped yearly between seven water districts.
The DCP does provide language directing completion of infrastructure; it does not provide for the allotment of funds.
