Central Arizona Irrigation and Drainage District (CAIDD) is formally considering a deal to import water from California.

Take a second to let that sink in — because it’s counter to what most folks think about agriculture.

The assumption has long been that water augmentation is only for major cities, those that can pay the higher cost that new water sources require.

But farmers are leading the way on this conversation.

And that could impact a lot more than the Pinal County fields they irrigate.

CAIDD lost water years ago


CAIDD already knows the deep pain of Colorado River cuts.

It was among the first to see its lower-priority water eliminated in the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan.

The Eloy irrigation district secured state and federal aid to resume pumping groundwater, but those wells only produce a fraction of the water that the Central Arizona Project once delivered.

In a gravity-fed system like CAIDD’s, less water in canals means less momentum to push water to every customer.

“Some laterals are better than others,” said district president Dan Shedd, who irrigated 2,200 acres when Colorado River water was still flowing. 

That’s down to about 600 acres now. 

“My neighbor can’t farm as much as I can because of where the wells are situated. Most of us are less than 50%.”

Farms need extra in summer

Farmers across the district have adapted to this new reality.

Most have fallowed land. Some have sold or leased parcels to solar projects to help make ends meet.

Many remaining fields have been reconfigured into smaller plots, so lower-pressure water can move uniformly across them.

And farmers are diversifying what they grow.

“Normally, I’d have 1,600 acres in cotton,” Shedd, an Arizona Farm Bureau member, said.

“But now I’m growing wheat and garbanzo beans in the winter when there’s more water. It’s just a break-even deal.”

Summer is a different story.

Though more profitable alfalfa, cotton, corn and Bermuda grass can be grown then, it can be a struggle to pump enough water when the heat’s on and everyone needs irrigation at once.

In past years, the irrigation district has secured extra supplies from nearby providers to supplement when needs are highest.

But that water is growing scarce as others across Arizona now face cuts.

CAIDD knows it needs to do more.

Cadiz has groundwater to sell

Meanwhile, a California company called Cadiz is looking for interested parties to sell its groundwater, which it says would otherwise be lost to evaporation in a dry lakebed.

The water and land management company has secured rights to pump up to 75,000 acre-feet of water a year from an aquifer roughly the size of Lake Mead.

Its Mojave Groundwater Bank, located about two hours west of Lake Havasu City in Arizona, is neither new nor universally welcomed in California.

Opponents have tried to stop the project multiple times over 30 years. 

But Cadiz recently secured the last federal permit it needs to begin converting a natural gas line to transport its water north and west. 

The idea, at least initially, is to exchange that water with users who receive supplies from the State Water Project.

That water would flow to Los Angeles, in an agreement that has yet to be cemented, where users there would agree to conserve a commensurate amount of Colorado River water. 

And then, in other agreements that still must be negotiated, 10,000 acre-feet of that water would flow to CAIDD through the Central Arizona Project canal.

Effort now is to lower the price

If this sounds complicated, it is. 

Finalizing complex agreements to move water every year for at least five decades is one thing. 

Lowering the price for CAIDD to officially bite on this deal is another.

“We can’t pass the cost onto food,” Cadiz CEO Susan Kennedy said, particularly when farmers already operate on slim margins.

Kennedy — a long-time California political operative — is rustling the bushes for private investment and an 80% federal funding match.

She is also working with the Bureau of Reclamation to develop a model exchange agreement that could be used to expedite other interstate water transfers.

This could change the narrative

Ten thousand acre-feet is a drop in the bucket for CAIDD, which even at diminished capacity delivered about 160,000 acre-feet last year.

It’s not enough water to restore fields that have been taken out of production.

But it is enough to provide more long-term certainty for those that remain. 

If the deal comes together, it could prove to other irrigation districts that new supplies aren’t necessarily out of reach, and that agriculture has a more secure future in Arizona, despite its current water challenges. 

And even if it doesn’t, district leaders contend, the conversation could open doors to other ideas and opportunities.

“This could bring water to Arizona, whether or not we can utilize it,” said Ron McEachern, CAIDD’s former general manager.

“That’s worth something.”


Joanna Allhands writes about water, land use and other issues important to the Arizona Farm Bureau. Reach her at joannaallhands@azfb.org.