By Kiera Riley | State Affairs
Fondomonte Arizona, the Saudi-owned alfalfa farm in La Paz County, used the Arizona Department of Water Resources initial move to study and regulate the Ranegras Plain Basin as fodder to fuel its claim that the attorney general lacks the authority to curb the company’s groundwater pumping through a public nuisance claim.
Attorney General Kris Mayes sued Fondomonte in December, claiming the company’s “excessive” groundwater pumping constitutes a public nuisance, citing declining water levels and quality, dry wells, sinking land and permanently depleted aquifers.
But Fondomonte is now claiming that Mayes is using public nuisance litigation as a “backdoor to regulatory powers she does not possess,” noting that ADWR is statutorily delegated the power to seek and secure similar relief through an Active Management Area.
