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Lawmakers also approved a series of measures to help Pinal County farmers deal with the water shortages they will face as part of the agreement.
Under the proposal, farmers will fallow thousands of acres of land and give up their rights to Central Arizona Water.
Bahr believes allowing Pinal County farmers to use ground water will only create more problems.
Without a consensus plan, the federal agency has said it will make the rules.
The deadline requires only that the states sign off on the drought plan for the river that serves 40 million people in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.
That’s because Arizona has the lowest priority rights to the river.
If Arizona’s proposal collapses and the federal government steps in, those states could put some of their plans in motion to meet their obligation to other states, water managers said.
Arizona must find a way to reduce its use of Colorado River water by up to 700,000 acre-feet — more than twice Nevada’s yearly allocation under the drought plan.