Can Attorney General Kris Mayes stop the Saudi cows eating Arizona's water?

It’s a fairly simple question: Should the precious groundwater under Arizona’s rural communities be used to quench the thirst of Arizona’s men, women and children … or Saudi Arabian cows?

This being Arizona, you already know the answer: Moooooooo!

Newly elected state Attorney General Kris Mayes would like change that, however, saying recently, “I have never seen anything this egregious by state government in my life.”The sapping of our state’s rural groundwater has been a problem for a very long time, ignored mostly by the Arizona Legislature. There are regulations in Arizona’s urban areas that have to do with pumping groundwater. But in rural communities, which make up the vast majority of the state, it’s a free for all.

No substantive laws in decades

Arizona Republic reporters Rob O’Dell and Ian James published an exhaustive report on the situation last summer. They pointed out how a Saudi company, Fondomonte, is renting thousands of acres of land overseen by the Arizona State Land Department for a bargain basement price, and sucking up as much water as they want to grow the alfalfa needed to feed cows in the Middle East.

Sweet deal:Saudi farm pumps water from Phoenix's backup supply

This is necessary because the Saudis have pretty much drained their own underground aquifers.

Saudi cows are, essentially, eating our water.

And they’re doing so because no substantive legislation on groundwater regulation has gotten through the Legislature in decades.

Back in 2016 I spoke with La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin about the situation. She told me, “Once it’s gone, our water is gone. We want everyone to live here. We want the farmers to do what they do because they’re important to the local economy. We want the generations of families who have been here to continue to live here. But things have to change or that can’t happen.”

Mayes says 'every single day counts'

Irwin is still on the job. Still raising concerns. Still looking for action.

Just recently Irwin told another reporter, “Now we have all these different companies coming in and depleting our natural resources, and that’s an issue. And that’s something the state, at some point, is going to have to address.“

And a least one newly elected state official is listening.

Attorney General Mayes says she is going to challenge the lease agreement with the Saudis.

She said, “Every single day counts. That water is coming out of the ground every single day. Arizonans are right to be outraged that the State of Arizona would allow a Saudi-owned corporation to stick a straw in the ground and suck the water out for free.”

From water crisis to water catastrophe?

Late last year, in an essay for The New York Times, Natalie Koch, a professor in Syracuse University who will soon publish a book about Arizona’s water issues and our ties to Saudi Arabia, wrote, “Arizona is not the victim of evil outsiders; it’s the victim of its own hubris and political failings that allow such a system to exist.”Exactly.

The Arizona Republic’s Joanna Allhands recently reported about how a couple of small rural communities trying to save water are showing the way for the rest of the state.

It’s a start, but according to Professor Koch, the Legislature has to act in order “to prevent Arizona’s water crisis from becoming a water catastrophe.”

Mayes might be able to help with the Saudi deal, but that’s only part of the problem. If Arizona lawmakers don’t act soon the business interests draining the state’s aquifers will continue to do so until the cows come home.

While the spigots in our homes run dry.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Saudi cows are eating Arizona's water. Can Kris Mayes stop them?