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https://www.meidastouch.com/news/gov-katie-hobbs-shuts-down-corrupt-gop-deal-with-saudi-arabia-for-arizona-water
Huge
win for water rights for Americans in the drought plagued southwest
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Troy Matthews
Democratic Governor of Arizona
Katie Hobbs is pulling the plug on water leases held by Saudi Arabian
companies in that state in a massive win for local water rights in the
southwest.
Hobbs announced on Monday the
termination of the lease for Fondomonte Arizona, a Saudi-based
company that operates an alfalfa farming operation in La Paz County in
western Arizona in the Colorado River Basin.
Saudi companies lease huge
swaths of land along the Colorado River border between Arizona and California
where they use ground water to grow alfalfa to make hay for cattle ranches in
Saudi Arabia.
Fondomonte’s lease
under Hobbs' predecessor Republican Governor Doug Ducey allowed them
to take as much ground water as they wanted to grow alfalfa without any
payment to the state.
"Today, I canceled one of
Fondomonte’s Butler Valley leases and announced the State will not renew
three other leases in February 2024," Gov. Hobbs said in a post on Monday.
She continued, "I’m taking
action where my predecessor wouldn’t and holding Fondomonte accountable. It’s
unacceptable that they have continued to pump unchecked amounts of
groundwater out of our state while in clear default on their lease."
Alfalfa farms are the biggest water taker in the
increasingly dry Colorado River Basin. At a time when communities in Arizona,
Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and California are having to ration their
water usage due to unprecedented drought conditions brought about by climate
change, corporate alfalfa farms use millions of gallons of water to grow
alfalfa each year to support the cattle industry.
As Lake Meade and Lake Powell in
the southwest reach extinction level lows, corporate alfalfa farms use
amounts of water equivalent to a small lake to sustain a single crop. The
Saudi farms used so much water local residents were complaining that their
ground water wells had run completely dry.
"We know by anecdotal
evidence that wells are being de-watered by these big farming
operations," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said. "We know
that land is subsiding. We can see that with our eyes. We have existing law
that we don’t think is being followed."
Though much more action is
needed to maintain a sustainable drinking water supply in the southwest, this
move by Katie Hobbs is a huge first step in reclaiming local water sovereignty
from corrupt business arrangements with the Saudis.
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