End of lease for Saudi-owned farm in Arizona raises questions about unregulated groundwater
Gov. Katie Hobbs says she is protecting Arizona's resources by terminating the leases for a Saudi-owned company that’s been growing water-intensive crops in the drought-stricken state. But some say the state needs to do more to regulate rural groundwater.
The state trust land in La Paz County where Saudi-owned company Fondomonte has been farming is in what’s known as a transport basin.
Kathleen Ferris is a senior research fellow with ASU’s Kyl Center for Water Policy who also helped shape Arizona's 1980 Groundwater Management Act. She said Butler Valley is one of a handful of critical areas in the state where groundwater is supposed to be set aside for possible future use by Phoenix or urban users as other water supplies become depleted.
“Now as we enter into a prolonged drought and the fact that we can’t count on the kind of Colorado River supplies we’ve had in the past, this water becomes more valuable to meet the needs of urban uses," Ferris said.
Ferris said her concern is not so much that foreign companies are growing thirsty crops in Arizona, but that state law allowed for industrial farming with unregulated use of groundwater in the first place.
"Do a lot of people think this was a good thing to do? Yes. But let's keep it in context. We need to do far more," Ferris said. “Our state is not doing enough to protect the groundwater in our rural areas for everyone that lives there and for future uses in other areas."
Ferris said rural groundwater is being exhausted much faster than it’s getting recharged.
