VICKSBURG, Ariz. — Lush green fields of alfalfa spread across thousands of acres in a desert valley in western Arizona, where a dairy company from Saudi Arabia grows the thirsty crop by pulling up groundwater from dozens of wells.
The company, Fondomonte, is the largest water user in the Ranegras Plain groundwater basin, shipping hay overseas to feed its cows in the Middle East. Like other landowners in the area, it has been allowed to pump unlimited amounts from the aquifer, even as water levels have declined.
That soon could change, as Arizona officials are considering a plan to start regulating groundwater pumping in the rural area 100 miles west of Phoenix.
Misha Melehes, who lives near the rural town of Bouse, Ariz., speaks during a hearing held by the Arizona Department of Water Resources at an RV park in the community of Brenda.
At a meeting in mid-December, more than 150 residents of La Paz County sat listening in folding chairs as state officials underlined the severity of the declines in groundwater levels by showing graphs with lines sloping steeply downward.
“This is where the heaviest pumping is. This is where we’re seeing the most decline,” said Ryan Mitchell, chief hydrologist for the Arizona Department of Water Resources, as he showed charts of the plummeting aquifer levels.
The data from wells told the story: In one, water levels dropped a staggering 242 feet since the early 1980s. Another declined 136 feet.
Structures storing alfalfa at Fondomonte’s farm in Vicksburg, Ariz.
Mitchell said current pumping in the Ranegras basin isn’t sustainable, and that in places it’s causing the land surface to sink as much as 2 inches per year.
“That is a trend that is alarming,” he said. “The water budget for the basin is out of balance, significantly out of balance.”
As he read the numbers, murmurs arose in the crowded hall.
In recent years some residents’ household wells have gone dry, forcing them to scramble for solutions.
The problem of declining groundwater is widespread in many rural areas of Arizona. Gov. Katie Hobbs has said Arizona needs to address unrestricted overpumping by “out-of-state corporations. ” She also said the declines in the Ranegras basin are especially severe, with water being depleted nearly 10 times faster than it is naturally replenished in the desert.
The Arizona Department of Water Resources proposed a new “active management area” to preserve groundwater in this part of La Paz County, which would prohibit the irrigation of additional farmland in the area and require landowners with high-capacity wells to start measuring and reporting how much water they use. It also would bring other measures, including forming a local advisory council and developing a plan to reduce water use.
Some residents say this kind of regulation is overdue.
“What it is now is a free-for-all,” said Denise Beasley, a resident of the town of Bouse. “It’s just the Wild West of water.”
Denise Beasley stands outside her home in Bouse, Ariz.
She believes the change will bring much-needed controls and help ensure that her well, and those of others in her community of about 1,100, will be protected.
Fondomonte, part of the Saudi dairy giant Almarai, started its Arizona farming operation in 2014. It is part of a trend: Saudi companies have been buying farmland overseas because groundwater is being exhausted in Saudi Arabia, and as a result the country banned domestic growing of alfalfa and other forage crops.
A lawyer for the company said it owns 3,600 acres in Vicksburg. The company also rents 3,088 acres of state farmland and 3,163 acres of state grazing land in the Ranegras basin under leases that expire in 2031.
Grant Greatorex fills jugs with purified drinking water at a water filling station at Bouse RV Park in Bouse, Ariz. He says this water tastes better than the water from his well at home.
The State Land Department is charging the company about $83,000 annually under those leases, said Lynn Cordova, a spokesperson for the agency.
Some residents who spoke at the hearing think it’s wrong that Fondomonte gets to use the water to grow hay and export it across the world. Others don’t see any problem with having a foreign company as their neighbor but believe the area must switch to less water-intensive crops.
“This is a desert, and our water is drying up,” said Misha Melehes, who lives near Bouse. “We’re bleeding out. We need a tourniquet while we wait in the emergency room.”
Others fear that state-imposed rules could lead to downsizing farms and even shipping water away to Arizona’s fast-growing cities.
An alfalfa field owned by the company Fondomonte, in Vicksburg, Ariz.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Kelly James, a resident who lives nearby, called the proposal a “water grab.” He urged the state to delay the decision and let locals develop their own plan.
He and others pointed out that Arizona has a history of cities finding ways to buy water that farms previously depended on, and that under state law three groundwater basins adjacent to Ranegras already are set aside as reserves to support urban growth.
The state proposal says nothing about transporting water out of the Ranegras basin. In fact doing so would be illegal under the existing law. But that doesn’t quell the misgivings of some people in the area.
“I have a lot of suspicion,” said Robert Favela, who uses his well to water a stand of bamboo on his 5-acre property in Vicksburg. “Trust me, they’re going to take our water.”
Larry Housley pumping water into buckets for horses at his farm near Bouse, Ariz.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Jennie Housley, who owns a 40-acre horse ranch near Bouse with her husband, Larry, fears the area could lose its agriculture industry and eventually lose its water to growing subdivisions and swimming pools.
“I believe that to sustain our country, we have to have agriculture in places like La Paz County,” she said.
Larry Hancock, a farmer who grows crops in neighboring McMullen Valley, wrote a letter to the state making a similar argument. He said growers already are “conserving water because it’s in our best interest,” and imposing regulation would bring economic harm.
Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke is scheduled to announce his decision on whether to start regulating groundwater in the area by Jan. 17.
No representative of Fondomonte spoke at the meeting. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
Efforts to curb the depletion of groundwater present complex challenges for communities and state agencies throughout much of Arizona, California and other Western states.
Large farming operations expanded in Arizona in recent years, while global warming has put growing strains on the region’s scarce water. Scientists using satellite data estimated that since 2003 the amount of groundwater depleted in the Colorado River Basin is comparable to the total capacity of Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir.
Arizona has limited pumping in Phoenix, Tucson and other urban areas since the state adopted a groundwater law in 1980.
But the law left groundwater entirely unregulated in about 80% of the state, allowing large farming companies and investors to drill wells and pump as much water as they want.
Since Hobbs took office in 2023, she has supported efforts to curb overpumping where aquifers are in severe decline. In January her administration established a new regulated area in the Willcox groundwater basin in southeastern Arizona, and Hobbs this month appointed five local leaders to serve on an advisory council that will help develop a plan for reducing water use.
“We feel like it has given us hope for a sustainable future,” said Ed Curry, a farmer who is a member of the Willcox council. “It gave us power.”
Luis Machado dismantles a pipe after testing a water well in Butler Valley, Ariz. Workers recently removed pumps from wells in the area after Arizona ended leases of state-owned farmland to the Saudi company Fondomonte.
Several months ago Hobbs toured La Paz County and spoke with residents about ways to protect the area’s water. The Democratic governor has taken other steps to rein in water use, terminating Fondomonte’s leases of 3,520 acres of state-owned farmland in Butler Valley in western Arizona. The decision followed an Arizona Republic investigation that revealed the state was charging discounted, below-market rates.
Now those former hay fields sit dry, with weeds poking through the parched soil. Workers have been removing pumps from the leased land, and power lines that once supplied the wells stand unused in the desert.
An alfalfa farm in Butler Valley sits parched after Arizona ended leases of state-owned farmland that had been granted to the company Fondomonte.
While Fondomonte continues farming nearby, the company also faces a lawsuit by Arizona Atty. Gen. Kris Mayes alleging that its excessive pumping violates the law by causing declines in groundwater, land subsidence and worsening water quality.
The lawsuit says the company uses at least 36 wells and accounts for more than 80% of all pumping in the Ranegras basin.
Fondomonte’s lawyers argued in court documents that the attorney general doesn’t have the authority to regulate groundwater pumping and that the suit is an attempt to have the court “wade into a political question.”
The Department of Water Resources’ proposal is a way to finally protect water for the area’s residents, said Holly Irwin, a La Paz County supervisor who for years has pushed to address the problem.
“You’re starting to see more and more wells get depleted. If we don’t try to slow this thing down, where are we going to be in 20 years?” Irwin said.
Nancy Blevins, who lives near the Fondomonte farm, agrees.
In 2019 she and her family watched their well run dry. She spent months driving back and forth to a friend’s house, filling up plastic bottles and bringing the water home.
Nancy Blevins outside her home in Arizona’s La Paz County.
Eventually, they bought a new pump and installed it at a lower level in their well, restoring their tap water. She still stores bottled water in a shed next to her mobile home in case the well dries up again.
“They should start regulating,” Blevins said. “People’s water levels are dropping around here.”
If something doesn’t change, the water eventually will run out, she said, and “future generations are going to be in trouble.”
