A precedent-setting plan to transfer water rights has set up a fight between Colorado River communities and a town in central Arizona. The proposal calls for 2,000 acre feet of Colorado River water to be transferred 260 miles away to the town of Queen Creek. 

The town wants to purchase and transfer water from a farm in La Paz County. The request has been approved by the Arizona Department of Water Resources and awaits a review by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Mark Clark is the chairman of the Mohave County Water Authority and he says Central Arizona has resources river communities don’t. 

“They have groundwater, they have in-state streams. We don’t have any of that. All we have is this small amount of water, this 164,000 acre feet of water that we have to share amongst everybody along the river. All the way from the Mexican border north," said Clark. 

Clark says that this would be the first transfer of its kind directly off the river, and he would like to see a full environmental impact statement conducted before any final decisions are made.