Under Arizona’s plan for coping with drought, farmers who’ve received Colorado River water from the Central Arizona Project Canal for more than three decades now expect to see their allotment slashed more than 60 percent, from 275,000 acre-feet to 105,000 acre-feet per year for the first three years of a shortage.
After that, their supply of Colorado River water will be cut off and they plan to rely solely on pumping groundwater from wells.
“We’re going to have to lay off employees.” Thelander, who is 63, has been farming in Pinal County since 1995.
Mark Henle/The Republic Farmers in Pinal County have known for years that their supply of Colorado River water was temporary.
There is no way around it,” Thelander said.
I can tell you that,” Thelander said.
The Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, which represents cities that supply water to more than half the state’s population, said in a Jan. 7 economic analysis that Pinal County agriculture represented about 0.2 percent of Arizona’s economy in 2016, and that about 11 percent of the county’s agriculture industry is at risk due to the water cutbacks under the Drought Contingency Plan.
“So, we are sure that we will keep that in production as long as we can.” How Pinal got Colorado River water In the 1930s, growers in Pinal County dug wells and began irrigating farms with groundwater.
This year, the district plans to deliver 43 percent of its water from the CAP canal and get the remaining 57 percent from groundwater pumping.
“We don’t want it to be a shot in the dark.” Leaving fields dry Standing on the edge of a cotton field, Thelander watched a tractor roll toward him.