Water transfer from Colorado River to Queen Creek faces stiff opposition
by Bret Jaspers | KJZZ/Cronkite News
Queen Creek is trying to buy an annual entitlement to 2,083.1 acre-feet of Colorado River water from a farming and investment company that owns land in Cibola Valley, in far west La Paz County.
Oskar Agredano/Cronkite News
The latest proposal to transfer water from the Colorado River to central Arizona has a fight on its hands.
Queen Creek is trying to buy an annual entitlement to 2,083.1 acre-feet of Colorado River water from a farming and investment company that owns land in Cibola Valley, in far west La Paz County. An acre-foot of water serves a family of four for about one year.
The initial cost would be $10,000 per acre-foot (about $20.8 million in all), but the money may be the easiest part. Getting permission to revise a so-called “fourth priority” entitlement contract between the landowner, GSC Farm, and the federal Bureau of Reclamation is far from simple.
