PHOENIX – Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Wednesday she's suing a Saudi Arabian agribusiness for allegedly violating a public nuisance law, contending that its groundwater pumping threatens the public health, safety and infrastructure of local communities in a rural western county.
The complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court alleges that the pumping at a Fondomonte Arizona, LLC. alfalfa farm has had widespread effects in the Ranegras Plain Basin of La Paz County, harming everyone who depends on basin water by drawing down supplies, drying up wells and causing the ground to crack and sink in some areas.
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The lawsuit is the latest action by Arizona against foreign companies that use huge amounts of groundwater to grow thirsty forage crops for export because of climate challenges in other countries. Rural Arizona is especially attractive to international businesses because it has no groundwater pumping regulations.
The lawsuit alleges that since 2014, Fondomonte has extracted huge amounts of water that accelerated depletion of the basin’s aquifer. The company is a subsidiary of Saudi dairy giant Almarai Co.
“We find the allegations of the Attorney General totally unfounded, and we will defend any potential action against Fondomonte and our rights vigorously before the competent authorities,” Fondomonte said in a statement Wednesday.
“The company has invested significantly to bring the latest conservation technology and applies environmentally sustainable practices on these long-established farms,” it said. “Fondomonte has continued to develop responsibly during its time farming in the state and the company complies with all state regulations. ”
Years of drought have increased pressure on water users across the West, particularly in states like Arizona, which relies heavily on the dwindling Colorado River. The drought has also made groundwater — long used by farmers and rural residents without restriction — even more important for users across the state.
“Protection of Arizona’s precious groundwater is certainly important, but this lawsuit could open a can of worms,” said Kathryn Sorensen, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. “Nearly every farm, city, mine, tribe, and power company in the state relies on groundwater.”
Water attorneys said they did not feel qualified to address the legal theory of public nuisance but emphasized the lack of regulation of groundwater pumping in rural Arizona.
Kathleen Ferris, an attorney and Arizona water policy expert who directed the study that led to the current law overseeing the state’s groundwater management, said rural groundwater use in the state “is “governed by the rule of reasonable use.”
“Anyone may drill a well and pump groundwater as long as the use of the groundwater is reasonable,” said Ferris, a senior research fellow at the Kyl Center. “Unfortunately, no use of groundwater has been determined by the courts to be ‘unreasonable.’ It’s basically a rule that benefits the biggest landowners with the deepest wells.’”
Mayes told reporters Wednesday that the Arizona Legislature has done nothing to fix the groundwater problem despite knowing about the problem for years.
“While laws regulating groundwater pumping could have prevented this situation, the legislature’s inaction has allowed the crisis to grow,” Mayes said. “When the legislature fails to protect our most basic resources, the attorney general must step in.”
La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin, a Republican, commended Mayes, a Democrat, for attempting to address what she described as her community’s “most challenging” concern.
“I know that my constituents will be thrilled over this, that somebody is actually paying attention to the real problems here,” Irwin said during Wednesday’s news briefing via a video conference call.
Mayes' lawsuit alleges that Fondomonte's actions are a public nuisance under a state statute that prohibits activity that injures health, obstructs property use, or interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by a community.
Mayes called the company’s groundwater pumping “unsustainable” and said it caused “devastating consequences” for people in the area.
“Arizona law is clear: no company has the right to endanger an entire community’s health and safety for its own gain,” she said.
The lawsuit seeks to enjoin the company from further groundwater pumping it says is “excessive” and require that an abatement fund be established to cover the costs of damages caused by the company.
Mayes said the dollar figure hasn't been determined but it will be established through the course of litigation.
Arizona officials have been targeting Fondomonte for more than a year over its use of groundwater to grow forage crops, by not renewing or canceling the company's leases in Butler Valley in western Arizona. Some residents there had complained that the company’s pumping was threatening their wells.
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Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.