Fondomonte, a Saudi Arabian-backed farming company, has been under the microscope in Arizona in recent years, since it came to light that it pumps untold amounts of Arizona groundwater to grow a thirsty crop: alfalfa — which is mostly shipped to the water-challenged Middle Eastern kingdom to feed cattle there.
Arizona's governor and attorney general have spoken out against the practice as Arizona faces ongoing drought and an uncertain water future. Last year, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced her administration terminated state land leases for Fondomonte in Butler Valley.
But, not all of them. And now they’ve applied for a new well on its La Paz County property, according to documents obtained by Arizona Public Media. Zachary Ziegler, senior reporter at Arizona Public Media, joined The Show to talk about it.
Conversation highlights
So tell us about this new well. To begin with, where it is? How much water might they might be able to pump with it?
ZACHARY ZIEGLER: Yeah. So as my news director, Christopher Conover, would say, a little birdie told me that I should ask about a well permit that they had filed. It turns out that Fondomonte had applied back in June to get a new well, and the permit went through in July. This is what is called a non-exempt well. It can pump about 3,000 gallons per minute, and the bore hole for the well will go down between 1,000 and 1,500 feet.
That sounds like a lot, but how does that compare to a household pump, for example?
ZIEGLER: Yeah. So there is a classification of wells that ADWR — the Arizona Department of Water Resources — has for wells that are more residential in nature. They're called non-exempt wells. Those pump about 35 gallons per minute. So like 1/10 we're talking.
You also spotted a hiring sign outside their building. Does it look like they are growing their operation, despite the fact that they have lost some of these state land leases, like we mentioned?
ZIEGLER: Yeah, and it's always possible that, you know, maybe it was just a summer hiring rush. But you know, the leases that they lost total about 3,500 acres. Now, Fondomonte owns about 42,600 acres, and they still do have one lease on almost 3,100 acres that the governor and the attorney general really weren't able to do anything about. And that lease goes through 2031.
Why are they able to get a new well permit now, even as the state has tried so hard to stop them from pumping water here? Why do they have other leases in Arizona as well?
ZIEGLER: Well, we interviewed a number of people for our water podcast, Tapped, to talk about this very subject. And what we were basically told by a lot of water experts is it's the wild west ... once you get out of the major metro areas or the active management areas, the irrigation non-expansion areas in Arizona. So if you apply for a well, and you meet all the requirements, the state really doesn't have a choice but to give it its blessing.
Let's talk about about why Fondomonte has been so controversial. You've reported on extensively about Arizona's relations with Saudi Arabia, which is very interesting. How far does this go back?
ZIEGLER: It goes back to before the Civil War, before Saudi Arabia was really a thing. ... Back when Arizona was just a territory. This was the final spot where some of the camels from the U.S. Army Camel Brigade ended up ... That ended up failing actually because it was an idea of a secretary of war by the name of Jefferson Davis. So we can all assume where that one went once the Civil War started. And from there, it's gone into the University of Arizona. The first professor it hired was someone to help research the viability of date palms in Arizona. And that's why we have some date palm operations like in the Yuma area these days. And up where you all are in Phoenix, there actually used to be quite a few in that back in those days, before California became the dominant date producer.
So it's just in recent years that we've looked at this differently, as drought and water have become more of an issue here in Arizona.
ZIEGLER: Yeah. Yeah, that's there's been this relationship, but eventually as the Saudis started draining their wells back home, they were looking for a place to grow, feed for their growing dairy industry. And there was this connection to Arizona that they were able to take advantage of, because they knew a bit about agriculture here. Because people were going over there to help them try and establish something similar.
Do we know how much water they pump here that goes abroad?
ZIEGLER: We have no idea really. About the closest we can say is that it is having some measurable impact. We heard from people from county supervisors to just locals in the area telling us, yeah, they've had problems with their wells. You know, we heard about a church not too far north from Fondomonte, from County Supervisor Holly Irwin, who said their well has had problems. And we heard from others that their wells are getting kind of gunky because the water levels are going down, and they're having to switch out their filters more often.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct that the well permit is for land Fondomonte owns.
