Big Dairy Producer To Slightly Limit Groundwater Use, Compensate Residents, But 80% Of AZ Groundwater Still Unprotected
PEARCE, Ariz.—Nearly two years ago, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes held a town hall in this desert community, which is widely regarded as the epicenter of the state’s groundwater crisis. She heard countless stories from residents about how their water wells had run dry, the damage to their homes as land subsided from groundwater pumping and their fears that the situation would only get worse. Every day since, she said, she’s woken up thinking of those people.
Thursday she returned with major news: Her office has entered an agreement with Riverview LLP, a Minnesota-based dairy company that moved into the area over the last decade and quickly became a major driver of the Willcox groundwater basin’s decline. Under the agreement, the company is agreeing to reduce its groundwater usage by fallowing 2,000 acres of land and maintaining best practices to conserve water. The company also agreed to deliver $11 million to residents affected by the company’s overpumping that will pay to redrill wells, haul water and ensure the community has access to the critical resource.
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The agreement is the latest to rein in groundwater use in the region. For generations, the Willcox groundwater basin enabled small family farms to thrive under the desert sun. But in 2015, Riverview moved to the area, irrigating tens of thousands of acres to raise crops to feed their cows, and the aquifer rapidly declined. Far more water is pumped from the basin than goes in, and the signs of the aquifer’s collapse have begun to show, with fissures splitting roads and homeowners’ wells going dry. Nearly 80 percent of Arizona has no regulations on the use of groundwater, which is the main source of water for most communities. That’s led to industrial agriculture operations pumping unlimited amounts of water, leaving communities like Willcox vulnerable to unsustainable groundwater use.
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The final details of the Willcox AMA are still being ironed out, but the Attorney General Office’s agreement with Riverview will pave the way for over 100,000 acre-feet of water to be saved from pumping by 2040. One acre foot is enough water to supply two to three households in Arizona for a year. Far more will need to be done to protect the aquifer. State data shows more than 100,000 acre feet of water is pumped out of the aquifer than is replenished by rain or other sources and that the groundwater has been drawn down so low that it’s beneath the average well depth of the community. Riverview itself owns more than 30,000 acres in the Willcox basin and leases additional acreage, and other large farming operations dot the landscape.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10012026/arizona-agreement-with-dairy-farm-to-cut-groundwater-pumping/
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