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<br />(4) the cities incorporated the purchased land into their service areas, <br />assuring an adequate water supply for the areas of origin.49 <br /> <br />Eighteen completed or pending water farm purchases in Arizona have been <br />identified through May 1990. Most of them are in La paz County (where over one-half the <br />county's land has been purchased as water farms). Researchers at the University of <br />Arizona note that the "typical transaction is a $15 million purchase of land providing 15,000 <br />acre-feet per year, based on a 100-year pumping regime for groundwater.50 Because of the <br />need for a conveyance faility to transfer water, most of the acquisitions have been near the <br />Central Arizona Project (CAP) aqueduct (which the purchasors assume will be available to <br />wheel their water). The geographic location of the CAP faciltiy "has had the additional <br />effect of concentrating any adverse effects associated with water farms in one part of the <br />state.,,51 <br /> <br />The parties seeking water transfers have spent over $300 million to aquire 500,000 <br /> <br /> <br />acres of rural land for their water rights (nearly 500,000 acre~feet per year). The acreage <br /> <br /> <br />has included irrigated farmland that eventually will be retired, and desert land overlying <br /> <br /> <br />untapped aquifers. The transfers have been of land title only; no water has yet been <br /> <br /> <br />moved.52 The impacts on rural areas have been fiscal to date--tax and revenue losses <br /> <br /> <br />(there have been no environmental effects as in Colorado's Arkansas River Valley). <br /> <br />Despite the absence of actual water transfers, there have been fiscal repercussions <br />from the land sales. The Arizona Constitution exempts municipally owned land from <br />county taxation; La Paz County, therefore, is precluded from continuing to tax formerly <br />irrigated land purchased by the city of Phoenix. The county's tax base decreases, which <br />affects its ability to issue bonds backed by general fund revenue. <br /> <br />24 <br />