Arizona's Colorado River deal heads to lawmakers — do they have power to change it?
Federal planners have moved forward with a Colorado River plan that would sharply cut water for Arizona, California, and Nevada, with Phoenix and Tucson hardest hit. Arizona’s 1980 statute requiring legislative approval for interstate agreements could force a special session to ratify or modify related deals, though experts say the federal plan would proceed regardless of approval. Lawmakers could shape the outcome by approving a three-state deal to share reductions and by tweaking Arizona groundwater rules to adapt to less river water, but they cannot unilaterally block the federal plan.