World & Nation

Years of drought threaten farms in Yuma, Ariz.

Farmworkers harvest onion seeds along Highway 95.

Farmworkers harvest onion seeds along Highway 95.

  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Share

Wedged into a wrinkle of borderland between California and Mexico, farms in Yuma, Ariz., have been drawing water from the Colorado River since the late 19th century. Their early presence here earned the area the most-senior water rights in Arizona and some of the most-senior in the basin.

Colorado River crisis

Filemon Aguilera, a foreman, monitors farmworkers picking watermelon along Highway 95, which cuts through Yuma.

  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Colorado River crisis

Irrigation channels near Yuma, Ariz. At left is a cotton field.

  (William Yardley/Los Angeles Times)

Colorado River crisis

Bryan Winchell, a water dispatcher, at Imperial Dam, which crosses the Arizona-California state line. It collects Colorado River water to be diverted into the All-American Canal in California, the Gila River into New Mexico and the Yuma Project aqueduct.

  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Colorado River crisis

Pedro Figueroa works to irrigate a cotton field near Yuma.

  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Colorado River crisis

A field of durum wheat along Highway 95. Farms in the Yuma area provide fresh produce and more through the winter for chillier states.

  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Watermelon farming

A farm worker picks watermelon on a farm along Highway 95 in Yuma.

  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Colorado River crisis

Farm fields along Highway 95 are kept lush with Colorado River water -- for now.

  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Colorado River crisis

Jim Cuming at Cuming Canal, named after his family, in Gadsden, Ariz.

  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

World & Nation

More From the Los Angeles Times