By admin 
YUMA, AZ (AZFamily) — The Yuma City Council is preparing for a legal fight on two fronts to protect the region’s water supply as competition for the Colorado River intensifies.
Council members voted unanimously to authorize legal action over water transfers from rural areas to growing suburbs, as well as potential federal mandates that could reduce water allocations across the desert Southwest.
While no lawsuits have been officially filed by the city yet, officials said the move signals that Yuma is ready to defend its resources against both urban expansion and federal policy changes.
“We get one shot of water, and if that goes away or it’s compromised, it can impact our future in a very dramatic way,” Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls said.
One of the city’s primary targets is a proposed transfer of Colorado River water from GSC Farm in La Paz County to the fast-growing town of Queen Creek. Yuma is joining Mohave and La Paz counties to challenge the transfer.
Local leaders worry the move could set a dangerous precedent, allowing expanding municipalities to buy up and redirect water rights away from rural agricultural hubs.
“There are a lot of things that are impacted by simply moving water from one community to another, and so we just want to make sure that those things can be documented,” Mayor Nicholls said.
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At the same time, the council authorized potential legal action against the federal government over recent Colorado River operating guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The proposed framework includes potential water-use reductions for Lower Basin states, including Arizona, California and Nevada.
Nicholls said federal guidelines must avoid placing an unfair burden on local agriculture, which produces a major share of the nation’s winter vegetables.
“Yuma just needs to make sure that at the table that we’re part of the solution, but not the whole solution,” Nicholls said. “Just turning off the agriculture in Yuma is not the solution; that would be detrimental in so many ways.”
Nicholls said the council will continue evaluating its legal strategy in the coming weeks before making final decisions on formal court filings.
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