Tag: water level

Where a Saudi company pumps desert groundwater, Arizona considers imposing limits

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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.”

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Ian James

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December 27, 2025
California storms deliver above-average snowpack, replenish reservoirs

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California’s mountains are covered with snow, reservoirs are mostly filled and hills across the state are sprouting green grass and wildflowers after the latest round of soaking storms.

The snowpack across the Sierra Nevada now stands at 105% of average for this time of year, and state officials will provide an update on conditions Tuesday when they conduct their April snow survey, which is typically when the snowpack reaches its peak.

The state’s major reservoirs are at 116% of average levels, and are set to rise further as snowmelt streams in.

After a second wet winter, the state is heading into spring and summer with boosted water supplies.

“It puts us in very good shape,” said Felicia Marcus, a water researcher at Stanford University. “Any time you get to average, that’s a great thing.”

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She said the ample snow and rain this year provide the state some breathing room, but shouldn’t diminish the urgency of planning for the next severe drought and the effects of climate change.

“We’re on borrowed time,” Marcus said. “We need to save more water, even in the wet and the normal years, to get us through the increasingly frequent and drier dries that are inevitably going to come.”

In the last decade, California endured two severe droughts, and then came the historic series of atmospheric rivers of 2023, which brought one of the biggest accumulations of snow on record and triggered damaging floods in parts of the state.

This winter began with unusually dry conditions, but initial fears of a “snow drought” faded as storms in February and March pushed the snowpack to average levels.

Precipitation has been slightly above average statewide so far this year. And no part of California is currently in drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s data.

Water levels in the state’s largest reservoirs in Northern California are well above average levels for this time of year. Shasta Lake is now 92% full and continuing to rise with runoff from the latest rains, while Lake Oroville is at 88% of capacity.

In Southern California, Diamond Valley Lake is also nearly full.

Wetlands spread along the shoreline at Big Break in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta near Oakley.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Marcus, a former chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said the reprieve this year buys the state a bit of time to advance conservation efforts in cities and farming areas, and to invest in projects to recycle wastewater, capture stormwater and recharge groundwater.

“It doesn’t mean we take our foot off the gas pedal,” she said. “Because every year could be the first year of a 10-year drought.”

Even with the state’s reservoirs at healthy levels, California continues to face complex water management problems, such as struggling fish populations and the depletion of groundwater in many farming areas.

Chronic shortages of supplies from the Colorado River, a key source for Southern California, are also forcing water managers to make plans for scaling back water use.

For Southern California’s cities, however, this year’s storms and the substantial amounts of water stored in reservoirs are expected to keep supplies flowing reliably — a dramatic change from 2022 and early 2023, when shortages led to mandatory drought restrictions for millions of residents.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which delivers supplies to cities and local agencies that serve 19 million people, now has a record amount of water stored. That 3.4 million acre-feet of water, banked in various reservoirs and underground storage areas, equates to nearly three years’ worth of imported water, and a large portion of it accumulated thanks to conservation efforts, said Adel Hagekhalil, the MWD’s general manager.

“We in Southern California have done a great job in managing our water and reducing our water use,” Hagekhalil said.

While two wet years are helping the region’s water outlook for now, he said, the district’s officials are continuing to focus on long-term plans to ensure supplies during more severe droughts supercharged by climate change.

“We may be out of drought for the time being, but we’re not out of drought for the future,” Hagekhalil said. “This is the future climate, and we need to prepare for it.”

Last month, California increased the water allocations that suppliers will be able to receive this year from the State Water Project to 30% of their full allotments. That level of water deliveries “puts us in balance” with current water demand, Hagekhalil said, enabling the MWD to not draw down its stored supplies this year, and instead keep those reserves for when they’re needed.

Hopefully, he said, the latest storms will bring another increase in the state’s water allocations.

“That puts us in a place where we are storing water everywhere we can,” Hagekhalil said.

“Every drop that we can now store is a drop that we have available for the future,” he said. “This is the climate whiplash. We’re going to see hotter and drier days, and probably a number of years of drought coming to us, so this is the time to capture the water and store it.”

In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the center of the state’s water system, a recent increase in the deaths of fish at pumping facilities has prompted criticism from environmental groups and led to limitations on pumping.

“Overall, our pumping has been low throughout the year,” said Lenny Grimaldo, environmental director for the State Water Project. “We’ve seen a lot of protections triggered for species.”

The powerful pumps at state and federal pumping facilities reverse the flow of water in parts of the south delta, and fish can be sucked into the pumps or eaten by predators. Some fish are regularly captured at the facilities and released.

State officials said the estimated losses of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon and threatened steelhead trout at the state and federal pumping facilities surpassed annual take limits on March 21, which prompted discussions among multiple government agencies about additional measures to protect fish.

As a result, Grimaldo said, state and federal officials have kept pumping to levels that they deemed are “protective of minimizing additional losses of fish but also protective of water supply.”

The pumps that supply the aqueducts of the State Water Project and the federally managed Central Valley Project have been operating at a little more than one-third of combined capacity.

The state’s water withdrawals have been reduced since February to protect migrating fish, and in the last week, pumping was slightly increased based on data suggesting that this level of pumping “is not drawing additional steelhead into the zone of influence of the pumps,” said Mary Fahey, a spokesperson for the state Department of Water Resources.

State officials believe “protections for steelhead have been suitable for winter-run salmon as well,” Fahey said. She said the uptick in pumping will be short-lived because rules to protect another fish species, longfin smelt, take effect this month.

Meanwhile, other debates over long-term water management are continuing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and his administration are supporting plans to build Sites Reservoir, the state’s first new large reservoir in decades, as well as the proposed Delta Conveyance Project, a 45-mile tunnel that would transport water beneath the delta.

Newsom’s current plan for adapting to a hotter, drier climate predicts that California could lose 10% of its water supply by 2040.

Bidwell Bar Bridge spans Lake Oroville in February.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

State water regulators are considering alternatives for new water quality standards that will determine how much water may be drawn from the delta.

In farming areas in the Central Valley, local water agencies are starting to plan for mandatory reductions in agricultural water use to comply with the state’s groundwater law, which calls for curbing overpumping by 2040.

And for urban areas, the state water board is considering new conservation rules that will require each city or local supplier to meet a locally tailored water-use budget. After an initial proposal encountered criticism from water agencies, the board’s staff issued a revised proposal that includes less stringent water-saving standards and would reduce the number of suppliers that need to make large cutbacks.

The changes were supported by water agencies. But environmental groups and conservation advocates have objected to the weakened plan and urged the state to adopt strong water-efficiency standards to help the state prepare for more severe droughts and hotter temperatures.

Marcus said she agrees with the conservation camp and thinks it’s short-sighted to roll back the requirements to the extent state officials are proposing.

“We’re in a climate emergency and a water emergency that’s decadal at minimum,” Marcus said.

“The red alert is on for this, and conservation is the most cost-effective in the long run for communities,” she said. “We’ve got to definitely do a much better job of cutting back on our water use in the most creative ways we can come up with.”

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Ian James

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April 1, 2024