Draining Arizona: Mining For Water In The Desert Leaves Residents' Wells Dry | NBC News

there's a significant amount of people here that are getting up in the morning and praying to God that there's water when they turn their faucet on it's that it's gotten to that point it's that critical behind me is the dairy the Coronado farms and they are a very big important part of our economy we're coming up on a place that ran out of water and you're gonna see the trees are all dead all the time thinking of new ways to get water and be thinking of new ways to capture water we do have wells that are affected by large pump in areas and those well is to do the water level drops every year not all the ways we've done drive with Sheryl I don't have all of your agricultural water is coming from groundwater with more farms and more drilling there's more pull on the aquifer you know it's gonna get deeper and it's you know deeper to drill deeper to pump you know and just gonna get more expensive if they have no vested interest here they've just taken the water and when they use up the water they'll be gone [Music] this is Wilcox Arizona one of only six cities in Cochise County which is the south eastern most county in Arizona just north of the Mexican border like a true Sonoran Desert it's hot and it's dry but Wilcox is special because there's no surface water here the only water available to anyone or anything around here is underground despite that three-quarters of the businesses here revolve around agriculture surrounded by mountains the aquifer here is what's called a closed Basin meaning it can only be refilled by rain yet stretching out toward the horizon our disks of green as far as the eye can see these alien looking formations are crop circles with the irrigation anchor to the center of the field rotating in endless circles watering concentric rows of crops but these crops are used almost exclusively for cattle feed and in the last four years an out-of-state conglomerate known as Riverview has moved a lot of cattle here this Riverview dairy feedlot is raising sixty five thousand of them and there's another dairy feedlot owner construction down the road and that has some local residents worried given the amount of water needed to hydrate and feed so many cows in the shadow of these huge operations groundwater levels are falling leaving some residential wells dry and unlike a company with deep pockets residents the smaller farmers can't always afford to drill deeper to get to water so you may be wondering why did a big agriculture come to the desert of rural Arizona to answer that you need to understand who was here first my family been here over a hundred years around 115 years I think my great-great grandfather took some cattle about 200 head and moved them over here to Arizona the Klumps our ranching family through and through according to Tim they work about 800 cows on at least a hundred and fifty thousand throughout Cochise County in 1980 the state of Arizona changed its groundwater laws turning it into a public good instead of a property right but rural residents put up enough of a thorny resistance to keep most of these areas exempt from any regulations or oversight under the new law I don't believe that if I'm using the water there and it's my livelihood I don't believe anyone else owns that right except me for my pursuit of happiness for me doing my thing we do have wells that are affected by large pumping areas and it wears you to certain extent but it's not ever been my place to judge and I've always believed in whatever somebody wants to do then they can go do it for generations farmers and ranchers were free to farm in ranch as they saw fit here but that rural independence also opened the door to powerful outsiders willing to take advantage of the lacs regulations in this area something which has local residents fearful for the future I've been here 14 years in this home and I love this place so much it's so vibrant and has so much vitality a major major concern right now is the dairy that is a feedlot and it's basically right behind me a lot of people are sad a lot of people are worried a lot of people are very concerned and upset I got to know a friend of mine and she has this beautiful ranch and the day came when she sold to them recently she was backed into a corner we're losing community we're losing our neighbors this is my life this is what I created this is my hard work this is the expression of my integrity and I love this place I belong here this is a desert and for them to bring in that many cattle no way no way it doesn't make good sense simple as that all this this stuff it needs to stop this is what she's talking about when she says it needs to stop before 2014 this was an 8,000 cow dairy now it's a 6,000 cow dairy plus a 65,000 cow feedlot it's raising cows from calves to full-grown milking cows before shipping them to the Midwest for milking in 2012 the zoning ordinance change all but eliminated a cap on the number of cows that dairy operation could raise then in December of 2014 Riverview LLP a beef and dairy empire headquartered in Morris Minnesota purchased this dairy for 38 million dollars in cash Riverview then rechristened the farm Coronado dairy and began a 40 year buying spree described by local residents as shady greedy and intimidating according to a local newspaper interview when asked about purchasing surrounding land in late 2015 a company representative said it's not our style - about looking for land but public records showed that by the time that interview was given Riverview had already purchased at least 45 parcels of land across 21 transactions totaling 18 million dollars in the first year alone despite repeated conversations with NBC News Riverview declined all on-camera interview requests but during a call with NBC News a Riverview representative did say they were aware of the water situation and did their due diligence before moving here they are committed to sustainable water usage they plan to be here for the long haul and they were very transparent farm interviews with numerous residents in a public records investigation totaling hundreds of documents paint a different picture to grasp the full extent of River Views operations requires untangling a complicated web of partnerships holding companies and financial instruments the company used to access more than 140 million dollars in loans and a 500 million dollar revolving line of credit and purchased more than 20,000 acres across Cochise County taken together the review in its agents been at least a hundred and twenty-nine million dollars on property alone that doesn't include costs of drilling new wells paving roads construction costs etc residents who NBC News interviewed spoke often of huge cash offers for land that owners didn't want to sell but pressured into as their Wells dried up their property became surrounded or the cash offer was simply too good to pass up one seller said they couldn't speak with NBC News because Riverview had forced him to sign a nondisclosure agreement as part of the land purchase another resident who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions said and in this tone of voice everything that they've done they've done it mass amounts and with such speed and vigor that it's like a freight train they have an agenda and they have goals and they're doing it and it doesn't make a bit of difference how or why Riverview refused to comment on any specific land deals Riverview will soon open a secondary and feedlot operation down the road called turkey creek dairy which will eventually house an additional 60 thousand plus head of cattle bringing the grand total to more than 120 thousand cattle in the Wilcox area that's about a thirty to one cow two human ratio for Wilcox in total Riverview will farm and irrigate more than 20,000 acres it owns here for livestock feed while also providing each cow with the two to 40 gallons of water it needs a day so how is review coming by all that water they're drilling deep and often there's no average today is the problem drill in life we drilled 24 hours a day seven days a week on farm agriculture Wells without drillers like BJ drilling no one can access water at all are the residents Norman issah pala teas nor farmers but as the water table drops prices rise watch the trend of what it cost the drill of while 10 years ago versus what it cost to drill well today it's increased probably twofold as what it used to cost the drill hole where all we're having to drill deeper it doesn't show any signs of letting up and the cost to get to guaranteed water it all depends the size of the hole a domestic wells about like purchasing a car probably anywhere in the $30,000 range some of your bigger 16-inch cased wells are touching the easy 1/2 a million dollars and that's just to drill the hole that doesn't include the pump to pull the water or the electricity natural gas or diesel to run the pump companies like Riverview have the resources to sink deep wells at will to put it in perspective the average well depth in the Wilcox Basin before too was around 270 feet we're about 30 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty since Riverview moved in their newly drilled Wells averaged slightly more than 1200 feet deep or about 50 feet shorter than the Empire State Building and their deepest well 2,450 3 feet deep almost as tall as two Empire State Building stacked on top of one another unlike deep pocketed industrial farms local residents face a harsh reality when their wall dries up I decided one day that it would be nice to get a piece of property with water and also commercial rights to grow something it would be a good retirement but it didn't work out that way in the late 90s Reynolds purchased this property in Alfreda Arizona to transition into retirement I had a well inspector come out and inspect the commercial well and it had gone dry and there was there was no there was no fixing we were talking about close to $35,000 and I I didn't have it and I lost everything I got over $150,000 into the property and I would be lucky to get 20 out of it I was totally out of control for the situation and the choices I had to make we're not my own that made me angry I haven't really scraped up the pieces because I still have this property and responsible for I hate to even go out there I can't even go look at the place I know I just do it Peggy Judd is the elected official responsible for balancing constituent concerns with business interests for northern Cochise County she requested we conduct the interview here we're here because behind me is the dairy the Coronado farms and they are a very big important part of our economy hundreds literally thousands of people in this valley that appreciate them for what they are they plan to be here forever they would not have moved here and put them many many many many millions of dollars into this operation if they weren't gonna stay supervisor Judd told NBC News she sent her talking points to Mariah White at Coronado dairy for review before conducting this interview where I and I work really closely and I knew they had not wanted to participate in this filming project so I wanted to make sure that they knew where where I stand they definitely have a understanding of how their presence affects the groundwater the dairy does understand that when asked about fear of overusing groundwater supervisor Judd said it's being replenished it's not that it's not stagnant the way it's been described for years and years and years is the river coming from somewhere else when asked if there are significant flows coming under the mountains to replenish the Wilcox Basin Arizona Department of Water Resources chief hydrologist said evidence indicated that was not the case in fact he said the groundwater model for the Wilcox Basin shows more water flowing out of the base and then into it each year and that's before factoring in pumping our hundred-year modeling projections which basically anticipate keeping agricultural pumping about the same as it is currently we project draw downs of over 900 feet if water levels drop 900 feet as he predicts residents will be all but priced out of the valley for good if there is additional agricultural production or other types of high water use industries that are added to the basin it will have a increasingly negative effect on ground levels the problem for this Basin in rural Arizona as a whole is that additional agricultural production is coming to the state in 2013 one of the country's largest tomato growers nature sweet tomatoes purchase 55 million dollars worth of property in assets in Graham County just north of Wilcox to grow tomatoes in the desert in Cochise County out of state conglomerates have planted thousands of acres of water and sets of pecan trees over the last few years this influx of corporate farms isn't limited to domestic companies though in 2014 Almaty Dairy Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company purchased some 14,000 acres across drought-stricken California in Arizona to grow alfalfa one of the most water intensive crops that it then ships back to Saudi Arabia to feed to their cows there the bottom line as water becomes less available around the world access to cheap clean and unregulated water will attract the type of corporate farms and foreign conglomerates buy enough huge tracts of land seen throughout rural Arizona and with the deep pockets to drill even deeper wells the water table could eventually drop below that reach of residents for good [Music] hey NBC News viewers thanks for checking out our YouTube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

Channel: NBC News

Views: 528,054

Keywords: U.S., Digital Docs, U.S. News, Science, nbc news, news, breaking news, us news, world news, nightly news, current events, top stories, lester holt, Arizona, Draining Arizona, Willcox, water mining, desert town, groundwater, water supply, arizona water supply, corporate farms, dairy farms, feedlot, farms, farming industry, agriculture, environment, arizona drought, drought, living in arizona, climate change, climate change short film, global warming, climate, climate crisis

Id: 8ZwBSjBgMXg

Length: 15min 47sec (947 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Bear_The_Pup]

So a bunch of ranchers prevented legislation that would have protected them and then got exploited by a massive corporation who took advantage of the lack of regulation that they themselves created.

Tiny violin plays

[u/condimentsNconTnts]

Drink your milkshake

[u/machine_yearning]

“free markets” “personal responsibility” “rugged individualism” It all means the little guy doesn’t matter, never has, we are on our own.

[u/InsipidMess]

I lived in Cochise county for four years. They were always drilling for water next to the pecan farms. Residential water is expensive. It's going to get to the point people can't afford to live there anymore.

[u/abinorma1]

If this topic interests you, here is another short-form documentary about La Paz county (on the other side of Arizona)

[u/beneaththeradar]

call me crazy but maybe we should stop trying to have massive cities and industrial farms in the fucking desert.

[u/InsipidMess]

Heck if I know

[u/candleflame3]

"You need to understand who was here first."

​

*white guy starts talking*