The Buzz: Arizona's rural water fight continues

On September 12, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Water Resources calling into question its approval of paperwork filed by Saudi-backed alfalfa farm Fondomonte to drill a new well on land it owns in La Paz County.

"This is an area that we are already investigating for over-pumping by the Saudis, and it's also an area that has a formerly utilized munitions site. State law already requires the Director of the [Arizona] Department of Water Resources to not approve this well, at least not without additional study and making it clear and known that the site will not migrate to other areas and cause additional contamination to the water supply," Mayes told AZPM.

The letter also states Mayes' belief that swift executive action was needed from Governor Katie Hobbs, who said she would take action only when the legislature failed to change rural water law.

Hobbs' spokesperson, Christian Slater, sent AZPM a statement regarding the letter that reads in part, "The only elected official who has taken any action to hold Fondomonte accountable is Governor Hobbs, not the Attorney General. That's because the Governor is interested in real action to secure our water future instead of empty grandstanding. Right now, Governor Hobbs' actions to hold Fondomonte accountable are subject to administrative litigation in part due to reckless statements from the Attorney General like the one she made. And if the Attorney General were to ever follow the Governor's lead and take action to hold Fondomonte accountable, her statements could similarly sabotage those actions."

It then cites a court filing by Fondomonte that references past statements by Mayes about the company.

Mayes said her issues with water use in rural Arizona go beyond Fondomonte and include nearly 13,000 acres of nearby farmland that was bought by Water Asset Management, a private equity fund, in early July. The company already owns land elsewhere in western Arizona.

"$100 million that just went to a Wall Street hedge fund that also is gobbling up water rights in the Harquahala Valley, and Mohave County, you know, this is starting to feel a little bit like a possible antitrust problem to me, and so that we are starting to look at these water purchases by these companies from an antitrust lens. We'll have more to say about that later, but it's a huge concern."

Mayes also extended her criticism to Riverview LLP, a Minnesota-based dairy company that owns land in Cochise County that residents say is dewatering its aquifer to the point that they are struggling to maintain access.

"We had one woman testify at my town hall who said that she was driving one night near Willcox, and she had to slam on the brakes because she was about to drive into one of the fissures that had opened up on one of the county roads near the Riverview dairy. That's insane. That is absolutely insane, but it is the reality for many people in Cochise County. Why? Because government has failed them," she said.

While rural groundwater issues have been a topic for elected officials and the media lately, they are not new. Nate Halverson, a reporter and producer at the Center for Investigative Reporting, broke the news about the Saudi farm in Arizona in 2015.

"When I began to look at this, it wasn't to look at where foreign companies were setting up shop in the US. It was to look at what countries were running into massive water issues, and Saudi Arabia was one of those places, right? Not many people know, but in the 1990s Saudi Arabia was actually the world's sixth largest exporter of wheat by pumping up its aquifers to grow wheat and to ship it around the world. But it didn't last, and they basically ran out of water. And then King said, corporations, you need to spread across the world and find other places with water," he said.

Halverson said his reporting was initially met with skepticism, but he thinks it has begun to ring true in recent years.

"[Tom] Buschatzke, the head of [Arizona's] water department, said that we were 'making hay.' That this was basically a non-story, and that there was enough water in La Paz County for the next 100 years. And I think what you see now is the Arizona Attorney General and others are saying you need to look to see how much water there is, because we saw it in Saudi Arabia, which is why I came to Arizona because we've seen it happen in other places."

Halverson's reporting has continued to follow both private and foreign investment in agriculture and water rights around the world. That effort has been adapted into a documentary, The Grab, which is available for purchase now and will begin streaming on Hulu on October 10.

"We're seeing a lot more corporate interest, a lot more private equity, a lot more big money. And so I've come across investment bank white papers where they're saying farmers are getting older. They're nearing retirement age, and their kids don't necessarily want to stay on the farm. And so there's these opportunities to turn farmers into bigger and bigger operations. And so what you're seeing across the US is the size of farms are getting bigger and bigger, and in part, that is a reflection of this corporate interest on growing farms bigger and bigger."

And, Halverson said, governments are seeking to secure food chains of their own so that shocks in food prices do not destabilize governments and lead to revolutions such as the Arab Spring of the early 2010s.

"Those countries were buying food on the open market. And so when food prices shot up, they all of a sudden saw them having to dig into their reserves or having to fight with other countries, and that can be very politically destabilizing. They don't want to have to tell their people, 'Hey guys, you can't eat as much this month.'"

For more water coverage listen to our water podcast Tapped.

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