Deal between Willcox mega-dairy, Arizona AG a big win for rural groundwater conservation advocates

A groundbreaking agreement between the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and a mega-dairy marks a huge win for rural groundwater conservation advocates.

For the better part of two years, Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes has been investigating Riverview Dairy in Cochise County for negatively impacting the community with an exorbitant amount of groundwater pumping.

Instead of a lawsuit, Mayes says the dairy engaged with her office.

They’ve come to an agreement: The dairy will pump less water and fund the construction of new water infrastructure in the area. That will include money for drilling new wells and water hauling.

“It's my understanding that the cost of that to the company is around $18 million in lost profits and costs,” Mayes said.

Mayes told residents at a town hall on Thursday this isn’t the end-all, be-all solution to water scarcity, but it will protect the aquifer for now.

“To be totally frank, I made a choice here between getting something done right now for this valley to try to help the health of the aquifer, and trying to make sure that people who need their wells redrilled and who need help right now can have that, versus just suing the company,” Mayes told residents. “And I came to the conclusion that this was the best thing that I could do and that we could, that we could build off of this.”

She said she wants to see a replication of this settlement with other major agricultural users.

The deal

Riverview dairy will spend $11 million on the surrounding community, and the money will be split into two funds.

Half will go to the Sulphur Springs Water Fund for those living outside 1.6 miles of the dairy’s irrigation wells and administered by a nonprofit and a review panel.

That money will be prioritized for people to replace their wells and “provide access to tank systems, water fill stations, and water-hauling.”

The fund will open for applications in April.

The second fund will be administered by Riverview. It will go to the construction of new wells, tank systems, fill stations and hauling services for residential use closer to the dairy - plus the expansion of existing community water systems.

Riverview will report regularly to the attorney general and has agreed to continue its contributions for the next 20 years.

The other part of the deal is that the dairy will leave 2,000 acres of farmland fallow, meaning it’ll be using less water.

Mayes’ office estimates the settlement will protect more than 100,000 acre-feet of groundwater pumping over the next 14 years. One acre-foot of water supports about three households in Arizona for a year.

“My expert believes that it is adequate to help hundreds of families and homeowners in this valley,” Mayes said.

Groundwater decline in Cochise County

Both the Douglas and Willcox groundwater aquifers are largely located in Cochise County, and are running very low.

So low, in fact, that Douglas residents were the first to ever pass a ballot measure in Arizona establishing an active management area, knowns as an AMA, around the basin.

In an AMA, groundwater pumping is somewhat restricted, although AMAs are generally designed for urban areas, not rural ones like the Douglas basin.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources then made history again for establishing an AMA in the Willcox basin, even though residents had voted it down just two years earlier.

Still, AMAs take time to go into effect, and they aren’t geared toward addressing large agricultural operations.

Mayes’ deal will go into effect much sooner.

“The company is agreeing to use less water and do it more quickly than they would have to do under the AMA,” Mayes said.

Mayes joked that a real statewide solution to protect groundwater from agribusiness is something she thinks about when fantasizing about being governor.

“[It’s] something that a Legislature that really cared about rural Arizona would take up,” she said.

“Even though AMAs were created here, it does not address the damage already done, it does not necessarily address, totally at least, damage from ongoing operations of preexisting big ag,” Mayes said.

Mayes and Hobbs versus the Legislature

Because so many rural groundwater basins are facing extremely low water levels, lawmakers want to create a rural-specific alternative to AMAs for areas like Douglas and Willcox.

However, Republicans and Democrats haven’t been able to come to an agreement on what kind of water restrictions to impose.

Mayes has been very pointed about the Legislature's inaction on this issue. Without that legislation, the AMAs, ill-suited for rural areas, are the water department’s only tool for dealing with rural groundwater decline.

“The Legislature has failed for years to protect the residents of rural Arizona from groundwater depletion, so my office has stepped in to do it for them,” Mayes said in a statement on Thursday. “Today’s announcement is an immediate and concrete action to address the increasingly dangerous depletion of groundwater in rural parts of our state.”

Thursday wasn’t Mayes’ first time hosting a town hall on water security in Cochise County.

In 2024, she discussed the same issue with residents who pointed the finger at one particular lawmaker: Rep. Gail Griffin (R-Hereford).

A representative of Cochise County, Griffin has staunchly opposed and blocked several groundwater restriction measures at the state Legislature over the course of several years. Because Griffin chairs the House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, where water bills are typically heard, she has the power to stop legislation in its tracks.

Shortly after that town hall, GOP lawmakers accused Mayes of overstepping as attorney general and even formed a committee to investigate her actions. It was largely to do with water.

Griffin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

However, Senate natural resources chair T.J. Shope (R-Coolidge) said Mayes’ settlement sounds like extortion.

Local response

There was a bit of a mixed reaction to Mayes’ announcement in Cochise County on Thursday, but overall, residents at her town hall seemed generally pleased to have something in place, even if it’s not all they hoped for.

“This gives me hope. The attorney general actually listened to us two years ago at her town hall in Sunsites,” Pearce resident Cheryl Knott said in a statement released by Mayes’ office. “So many people stood at the microphone and told her about the terrible personal financial impact of having a well that's going dry. And the Attorney General actually followed up, so now people will get the help they need and the help they deserve when their wells go dry.”

Some residents said they are still concerned that neither the amount of money the dairy is investing nor the amount of ground its leaving fallow will be enough.

Several environmental groups and political leaders also provided messages of support for the settlement.