Arizona has rejected plans for two new deepwater wells requested by a La Paz county agricultural business owned by a Saudi dairy company.
Fondmonte, Arizona, already pumps enough groundwater to irrigate thousands of acres near Vicksburg, a 46-mile drive from Parker, where alfalfa is grown to feed dairy cattle. We are exporting to Saudi Arabia.
But last August, the state approved the construction of two new deepwater wells on the company’s lease in the Butler Valley, according to Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays. Mays said her office now found inconsistencies in new well applications and took the information to the state land department, which decided to block their approval. Agreed. The discrepancies reportedly included a list of various landlords and conflicting information as to whether the well was new or replaced.
“The pumps are pulling water from land that belongs to Arizona and is basically being exported to Saudi Arabia,” Mayes told CBS News. “With just one of these wells she can pump water to about 30,000 Arizona residents in a day. This means that the total population of La Paz County is just over her 16,000.” It’s pretty amazing when you think about it,” she told the Arizona Republic.
“Chris Mays has been amazing about this,” said La Paz District 3 supervisor Holly Irwin, who has been a vocal critic of the arrangement for almost a decade. “She contacted me about these leases and got kicked out here a few times and thinks the leases should be canceled. You would think it common sense not to approve a new permit until you have properly determined if there is one.”
Irwin added that he believes Congress should act.
“We are in a state of drought, and it has been for quite some time, so the usual methods of treating groundwater are no longer serving us,” she said. hoodie live“I don’t understand why it’s so hard for Congress to work on this. If we don’t change something now, we’re going to run out of water.”
The severity of the Southwest’s drought problem over the past few years has shed light on the generous water rights attached to these rural Arizona lands. It is controlled and limits the amount that can be pumped. But in the rural county of La Paz, there are no such restrictions, and that’s what attracted Fondomonte in the first place.
Fondomonte is a wholly owned subsidiary of multi-billion dollar Saudi Arabian dairy company Almarai and is one of the largest dairy providers in the Persian Gulf region. In the early 2010s, Saudi Arabia realized it was facing a water crisis, and the kingdom announced it would stop growing water-intensive crops like alfalfa. This has forced Almaray to look elsewhere for dairy feed, allowing Saudis to conserve their own water supplies.
“The reason Fondmonte is here is because they have depleted the natural resources that are there,” said Irwin. “They basically said that they will not allow us to grow more alfalfa here, so please find another place. It’s strange that our country allows this.”
Fondomonte began operations in La Paz County in 2014 after purchasing nearly 10,000 acres of land in Vicksburg for $47.5 million. Also, according to CBS, Palo, California, has purchased land in the Verde Valley and has rights to farm the state on about 6,000 acres. Butler Valley property, lease signed by State Land Department.
These purchases and leases allowed Saudis to take advantage of the region’s farm-friendly water laws. Groundwater use rights attached to the land were unrestricted. This meant that the company could use as much water as the well could pump and send the resulting crops wherever they wanted. The news has sparked the anger of those overly aware of the water crisis of the past few years, as the drought-stricken Colorado River is headed for disaster.
“It’s just free-for-all right now,” says Irwin. “If we don’t start regulating what comes out of the ground, we’re going to be in trouble.”
Irwin added that she believes the State Land Department owes La Paz County for the lease.
“The one in the Butler Valley is state land that is being leased to Saudi Arabia at a discounted rate,” she said. “Government land that is leased within our county is supposed to receive funding from it for school districts. We have requested compensation from our school district for the discount.”
Defenders of the arrangement point to a map from the Arizona Department of Water Resources that shows that well levels on Fondmonte’s land have risen since possession, and that the company has the most advanced water-conversation method. The arrangement is also unique. Nearly 20% of his western-produced alfalfa will be exported to other countries in 2021, according to USDA data. Some say that living in the modern world means embracing a global food economy. There is also a need for high-quality livestock feed within the United States, and alfalfa farmers say they have to grow it somewhere else.
But at a time when there isn’t enough water to go around, Attorney General Mays believes states should not only deny new well applications, they should also refuse to renew existing well applications next year. There is
