A water bill proposed by house speaker Andy Tobin has been heavily opposed by Yuma farmers and water resource experts, who believe any diversion of local water resources would be devastating for the areas $3 billion dollar agricultural industry.

Wade Noble is a lawyer representing irrigation districts in Yuma County.

"When you look at the Yuma situation, people realize that we are entirely dependent on the water that we use. If we were to cut the agriculture use by ten or fifteen percent the impact upon the entire community would be tremendous."

Farming is responsible for more than 7 million pounds of produce leaving the area to be distributed across the country every month.

The reason all of this is possible comes from the counties access to a bountiful water supply through the Colorado River and All American Canal.

Now other counties across Arizona are trying to divert the use of some of this water to fuel residential and business development.

A political committee has been formed to revise the water bill.

At a meeting Thursday morning at city hall in Yuma John Boelts, who is on the board of directors for the Arizona Farm Bureau, reminded those in attendance the importance of keeping the water we have here local.

“When we’re talking about other counties across the state taking water from the people here in Yuma, that could affect everyone and everything that goes on in this area.”