FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Water officials in Arizona say they are prepared to lose about one-fifth of the water the state gets from the Colorado River in what could be the first mandated cut. The federal government recently projected the first-ever shortage of river water that supplies millions of people in the U.S. West and Mexico. Arizona stands to lose more than any other state in the Colorado River basin. The brunt of the cuts will be felt among farmers in central Arizona who already have been fallowing more land amid an ongoing drought and improving wells to pump groundwater. The federal government will give its official projection for the river in mid-August.
