Kris Mayes sues ‘nuisance’ corporate mega-farms for exploiting Arizona’s groundwater rules

The state of Arizona filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a corporate farm operating in La Paz County, claiming years of excessive groundwater pumping has denied local farmers access to water and created a public nuisance.

The lawsuit, filed by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, claims the Saudi-based Fondomonte’s farming operations have depleted groundwater from the surrounding areas in a way that degrades the quality of life for neighboring residents. In 2023 alone, Fondomonte extracted over 10 billion gallons of groundwater—enough to supply nearly 100,000 residential homes with water for an entire year.

Mayes’ invocation of nuisance law against Fondomonte is the latest action she has taken against corporate farms since she was elected in 2022. Farms like Fondomonte and Minnesota-based Riverview Dairy set up shop in Arizona over a decade ago and have pumped unknown amounts of the state’s groundwater.

“We are seeking—through this lawsuit—to protect rural Arizonans, to protect our rural water supplies, and to make sure that we can preserve those water supplies for future generations,” said Mayes. “The water supplies that belong to these communities are being exploited; in this case, by a Saudi-owned corporation so that it can grow alfalfa and ship it back to feed their cows.”

The current lawsuit only names Fondomonte, and has limited its scope to the company’s operations in La Paz County. Mayes is also asking the courts to require Fondomonte to create an abatement fund to repay local communities for the damages their groundwater extraction has caused.

No injunction was requested, however, so drilling will continue while the lawsuit makes its way through the court system.

Why Arizona?

Corporate farms set eyes on Arizona after former Gov. Doug Ducey opened the floodgates for pumping, offering leases for $25 per acre and access to as much water as they could pump at no charge. The farms then built infrastructure that had the capacity to pump 6,000 gallons of water per minute, per well, quickly outpacing local residents. As a result, residential and small commercial wells dried up, and so much water was extracted that buildings began to sink into the earth.

La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin said curbing corporate groundwater pumping has been a priority of hers since she was first elected in 2009. During her tenure, she’s seen farmers run out of water for their crops and livestock, home foundations crack due to the earth collapsing beneath them, and commit centers like churches operate for years without running water.

Irwin, a Republican, pointed out that it was not until a Democratic governor and attorney general were elected that La Paz received support to challenge corporate farms’ groundwater use.

“It’s been extremely frustrating to protect ourselves from special interest groups and important companies from coming over here. It took a change in administration,” said Irwin. “It clearly shows how Republicans and Democrats can clearly work together in a bipartisan effort. I have that with Attorney General Kris Mayes, along with Gov. Katie Hobbs.”

Hobbs terminated a number of these leases, but several others remain, both on public and private lands. Wednesday’s lawsuit seeks to end these unrestricted leases en masse by declaring excessive groundwater pumping a public nuisance.

Nuisance laws are fairly broad, and are meant to protect residents from any action that “interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by an entire community or neighborhood or by a considerable number of persons.” In the court filing, Mayes’ office claims pumping groundwater with no limits or oversight has cut off enough residents from water access that it qualifies as a nuisance.

“While the mere threat of harm is sufficient to constitute a nuisance under the flexible nature of public nuisance law, Fondomonte’s actions have already inflicted harm,” the lawsuit alleges. “Fondomonte is taking advantage of Arizona’s failure to protect its precious groundwater resource. Despite this failure, Fondomonte is not permitted to cause a public nuisance that injures the health and interferes with the entire community’s comfortable enjoyment of life or property.”

Varying approaches to groundwater protection

While Hobbs and Mayes both seek to end excessive groundwater drilling, they differ on methods. After a series of public comments by Mayes calling for more executive action to revoke drilling permits, Hobbs admonished Mayes and called her actions political theatre.

“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, “Hobbs said in a statement. “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.”

If successful, Mayes’ nuisance lawsuit would rapidly accelerate the state’s role in limiting groundwater drilling and could have a ripple effect on other corporate farms operating in a similar manner to Fondomonte.