For nearly a decade, the state of Arizona has leased the rural terrain west of Phoenix to a Saudi-owned company, allowing it to pump all the water it needs to grow crops. And, for years, the state did not know how much water the company was consuming.
obtained through a public-records request show that Buschatzke received a note of praise from Rose, Fondomonte’s lobbyist. He thanked her, writing, “I know certain parties will continue to push at us on this.” Buschatzke declined to comment for this article.
He stressed that all improvements were approved by state officials and argued that the process was onerous only because the state “may not have been accustomed to its ag lessees being willing to invest in that level of improvement.
The company also is paying a modest rate to use state land. A 2018 study commissioned by the land department found that the market price per acre in La Paz County was $125, five times the amount Fondomonte was paying, according to a copy of the study, which was first reportedCurrent and former state officials said low land rents are not unique to Fondomonte and are meant to ensure that the land is
Andersen, the rancher who leases the acreage surrounding Fondomonte’s Butler Valley farm, has come to depend on water trucked from the company’s Vicksburg land after aon the Colorado River meant he no longer was allowed to siphon water from a diversion canal snaking through his ranch. On a mountain peak overlooking each town is the first letter of its name, painted in bright white. The paint for the “S” in Salome was paid for by Fondomonte, according to emails released by Salome High School.The emails show how the high school, home of the Frogs, benefits from Fondomonte. When the company promised a $2,500 donation, the school’s superintendent and former athletic director, Kari Avila, wrote, “I want to cry right now lol.
“We go to Salome and fill up gallons of water, and we shower with that,” said Sebastian Esparza, 15, who lives in the trailer park across the road from Fondomonte’s Vicksburg farm.The drought punishing Salome and other parts of the Southwest began in 2000 and has Fed up, she sought an investigation last summer by the state’s then-attorney general, Mark Brnovich, a Republican.
Fondomonte also mobilized. In August, Rose, the lobbyist, emailed what she called “some facts about Fondomonte” to an agribusiness trade association. She ticked through details of the company’s conservation methods and its impact on the regional economy.
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