Arizona Endorses Plan To Sell Colorado River Water To Suburb

The Arizona Department of Water Resources has endorsed a company’s proposal to sell water from farmland near the Colorado River to a a fast-growing Phoenix suburb despite complaints of possible negative effects for communities along the river.

The Arizona Republic reported the state agency recommended approval of the water sale by GSC Farm LLC to the Queen Creek suburb. GSC Farm sought state approval last year to permanently leave three quarters of a square mile of farmland dry and sell its annual entitlement of about 678 million gallons to Queen Creek for a one-time payment of $21 million.