Facing water cutbacks, Arizona farmers ‘in limbo’ despite $10 million federal pledge
by Ian James | Arizona Republic
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved $10 million to help pay for water projects in the farmlands of central Arizona, where growers are bracing for their supply of Colorado River water to be shut off.
But those funds, conditionally awarded this month by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, are still subject to negotiations between federal and state officials. And leading representatives of irrigation districts in Pinal County say many details about the funding remain uncertain, including how much they may be able to spend on drilling wells to pump more groundwater, a central piece of Arizona’s plan for implementing the historic Colorado River drought deal signed last year.
“It’s really up in the air as to what exactly we’ll be able to get done with this funding,” said Paul Orme, a lawyer who represents four agricultural irrigation districts. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty from the standpoint of the federal participation in this whole project at this point.”
