Saudi firm exits Arizona valley after water-use gripes

PHOENIX — Arizona officials said a Saudi-owned company they targeted over its use of groundwater to grow forage crops is moving its farming operation out of a valley in the Southwestern state’s rural west.

Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Arizona State Land Department announced late Thursday that Fondomonte Arizona is officially no longer pumping water in the Butler Valley groundwater basin. Some residents of La Paz County had complained that the company’s pumping was threatening their wells.

A statement by Hobbs says an onsite inspection had confirmed that Fondomonte was moving to vacate the property. Fondomonte has several other farms elsewhere in Arizona that are not affected by the decision.

Arizona regulations allow virtually unfettered groundwater pumping in the state’s rural areas.

Climate-challenged countries like Saudi Arabia have increasingly looked to faraway places like Arizona for the water and land to grow forage for livestock and commodities such as wheat.

Foreign and out-of-state U.S. farms are not banned from farming in Arizona nor from selling their goods worldwide. American farmers commonly export forage crops.

Fondomonte held four separate lease agreements in the Butler Valley Basin to grow alfalfa that feeds livestock in the Gulf kingdom. In October, Arizona’s State Land Department notified Fondomonte that three of its four leases in the Butler Valley Basin would not be renewed. Fondomonte was simultaneously notified that the fourth lease would be canceled as well.

The Arizona governor’s office said the State Land Department decided not to renew the leases the company had in Butler Valley due to the “excessive amounts of water being pumped from the land — free of charge.”