Drought plan buys Arizona more time, but Pinal farmers need money now
A map shows the Southwestern states in the Colorado River basin./Cronkite News
President Trump on Tuesday signed the plan for how Arizona and other Colorado River basin states will divide up the limited water that’s now available.
But what it also is doing is buying Arizona time to deal with the fact that the state is headed into a hotter and dryer future — and probably even less water.
The deal, formally known as the drought contingency plan, recognizes that existing allocations among basin states were drawn up during periods of what have turned out to be unusually heavy flows on the river.
