The Arizona Republic recently reported bipartisan outrage that foreign investors were exploiting, or arguably wasting, Arizona’s water resources (“Arizona AG, gubernatorial candidate launches Saudi water lease probe”). Demand”, 30 August).
The outrage is justified, but it’s important to remember that this problem extends far beyond a single company growing alfalfa.
It’s a statewide concern.
While it’s easy to focus on foreign actors, aggressive investor-owned organizations threaten water resources across Arizona.
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For example, in Cochise County, Intensive excavation for corporate agriculture It threatens the livelihoods of residents and endangers small farms.
On the other side of the state, in Mojave County, large amounts of water have been withdrawn for large investor-owned farming operations, putting the region’s future economic development in doubt.
Meanwhile, in La Paz County, a private equity firm has purchased land with the sole purpose of selling water rights to a suburb of Phoenix.
This last example brings up another point. Fondmonte, the company targeted by the candidate’s ire, is using the available aquifer “as a future water source for Metro Phoenix and other urban areas,” according to the article.
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The implication here is that the concern is not La Paz County residents, but suburban towns more than 150 miles away across mountains and desert valleys.
Residents of La Paz County have their own needs and vision for the future as a community, and these deserve at least some consideration in the water discussion. Whether local water resources are monopolized by corporate farms or redirected elsewhere, wells are equally dry.
Rural areas need the power to manage water
The focus on the foreign boogeyman and the needs of one metropolitan area tends to ignore the bigger problem here, mainly the fact that groundwater use is largely unregulated in most parts of the state.
Rural communities also have limited capacity for land use planning. Rural municipalities do not have the same comprehensive planning tools as urban counties in Arizona, so measures to control water use by restricting certain developments are not feasible. am.
Efforts to address this shortcoming in the last legislative session Establishment of the “rural management district” system Oversee local regulation of groundwater use, stalled despite broad bipartisan support.
It calls on elected officials and community leaders across the state to take action on this issue.
The $440 million budget allocated for the Conservation and Water Reliability Project, passed late in the conference, is an important step forward. But sustaining the progress we can make requires a more comprehensive approach, including planning and regulation.
This dialogue must continue. As Arizona rethinks how it manages this precious resource, it must include empowering local communities to determine the future of water.
Arizona native Tom Prezelski is the program manager for Rural Arizona Action. Rural Arizona Action is a Coolidge-based non-profit organization that works to advance voter empowerment and civic engagement. Former state legislator. On Twitter:@tomprezelski.
