Fondomonte groundwater pumping in Arizona
A Saudi dairy company's subsidiary grew alfalfa with groundwater in Arizona and, according to the state's Attorney General, pumped more than 81% of the water drawn from one basin in 2023. Residents' wells have dried, and the state sued the company in December 2024.
Ranegras Plain basin; 31,196 acre-feet, about 38.5 million cubic metres (Estimate: converted from acre-feet).
Status As of October 2025: the Arizona Attorney General's December 2024 case against Fondomonte is ongoing; no ruling in the record.
- Almarai, through Fondomonte — Alfalfa grown in Arizona with the harvest sent to Saudi cows, on about 10,000 acres bought for $48 million.
- Tom and Illene Wood, Salome — Paid $130,000 for a third well after the second dried in 2024, and now haul water from Wenden. Floodlight / Sentient Media
- Wells and aquifer in the Ranegras Plain basin — Wells recorded as dried in 2017, around 2019 and 2024; Fondomonte accounted for more than 81% of the basin's 2023 pumping.
- Wenden — Water table fell from 36 m to 165 m between 1946 and 2025 and the town sank about 1.2 m.
What happened
Almarai, a Saudi dairy company, bought about 10,000 acres (about 4,000 hectares) in Arizona in 2014 for $48 million and leased state land there. Its subsidiary Fondomonte grew alfalfa, and the harvest went to cows in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia had prohibited the cultivation of forage crops at home; Argaam reported that green fodder used about 17 billion cubic metres of water a year and that the ban was expected to save 9 billion cubic metres. Argaam reported that the ban took effect on 5 November 2018.
In 2023 Fondomonte pumped 31,196 acre-feet of groundwater in the Ranegras Plain basin, about 38.5 million cubic metres when converted, which was more than 81% of the pumping in that basin. Its pumps were rated at 4,000 gallons a minute. About 80% of Arizona has no regulation of groundwater pumping.
In December 2024 the Arizona Attorney General sued Fondomonte for public nuisance, alleging that it had drained the Ranegras basin and caused the ground to subside. The complaint records that one well dried in 2017 and another around 2019. The case is ongoing.
Floodlight and Sentient Media reported on 10 October 2025 that Tom and Illene Wood, of Salome in La Paz County, had paid $10,000 for a first well, $15,000 for a second and $130,000 for a third after the second dried in 2024, and now haul water from the town of Wenden. Their daughter's well across the road also dried, and a nearby church's well had dried years earlier. In Wenden the water table fell from 117 feet (about 36 metres) in 1946 to 540 feet (about 165 metres), and the town sank about 1.2 metres.
- 2014Almarai buys about 10,000 acres in Arizona for $48 million and leases state land
- 2017A well recorded as dried in the Attorney General's complaint
- 2018Saudi green fodder ban reported to take effect (5 November)
- 2019A second well recorded as dried, around this year, in the complaint
- 2023Fondomonte pumps 31,196 acre-feet in the Ranegras basin; Arizona cancels one lease and does not renew three (October)
- 2024The Woods' second well dries; Attorney General sues (December)
- 2025Floodlight and Sentient Media report on residents' dried wells (10 October)
What was said
“The water has disappeared, literally, from the area.”
How it looked
Shown
Recorded
- In 2023 Fondomonte pumped 31,196 acre-feet in the Ranegras Plain basin, more than 81% of the basin's pumping, with pumps rated at 4,000 gallons a minute.
- The Attorney General's complaint records one well dried in 2017 and another around 2019.
- The Woods paid $10,000, $15,000 and $130,000 for three successive wells.
In court and with insurers
Lawsuits and rulings
- 2024-12–OngoingArizona Attorney General v. Fondomonte (public nuisance)· Civil · Arizona Attorney General → Fondomonte
The Attorney General sued Fondomonte for public nuisance, alleging that it drained the Ranegras basin and caused the ground to subside. The complaint records one well dried in 2017 and another around 2019.
Insurers
What nature saw
Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.
What we don't know
Nature
- Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.
Record
- Unclear Outcome of the Arizona Attorney General's case and of Fondomonte's objection: not yet known.
- None on record Almarai's ownership structure: not established in the record.
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: a purchase of 1,790 acres at Blythe, California, in January 2016, alfalfa production in Córdoba province, Argentina, and a cost increase of 200 million riyals for Almarai from the Saudi ban.
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: that Fondomonte paid $25 an acre a year under its Arizona leases.
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: that in October 2023 Arizona cancelled one of Fondomonte's four state leases in Butler Valley and did not renew the other three, citing fuel storage tank deficiencies unresolved since 2016; that irrigation on those leases ended on 15 February 2024; and that on 7 March 2024 the Governor's office announced that Fondomonte was no longer pumping groundwater in Butler Valley (KOLD, KTVZ/AP; the record carries these only as unverified).
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: a company explanation of supply security for moving production abroad.
- Disputed Sources differ on the dates of the Saudi fodder ban (an announcement in 2015 and entry into force in 2018 are reported); the differences are not verified.
Did the harm stop?
The Ranegras case is ongoing; whether pumping stopped on the Butler Valley leases is reported but not independently verified (see unknown).
Who paid?
Residents with failed wells: one couple paid $130,000 for a third well and now haul water from Wenden (Floodlight and Sentient Media, October 2025).
Sources
Press and investigations
- Saudi-owned corporate farms are draining Arizona's desert dryFloodlight / Sentient Media · 2025-10-10
Connected cases
- Saudi wheat cut and 2018 fodder ban; Almarai's alfalfa farms in Arizona Saudi Arabia · 1980
- Almarai (Company) — here: Saudi dairy company; parent of Fondomonte; there: Parent company of Fondomonte
- Fondomonte (Company) — here: Almarai subsidiary pumping groundwater in Arizona; there: Arizona alfalfa grower; leases partly cancelled in 2023
- Arizona Attorney General (Public authority) — here: Plaintiff in public nuisance case; there: Filed public nuisance suit in December 2024