A judge, not lawmakers, could significantly alter how Arizona water law works.

That is, if the case even goes anywhere.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is suing Fondomonte Arizona, the Saudi-owned company that has become a political target because it grows alfalfa to export.

The lawsuit claims that Fondomonte is a public nuisance because it is pumping groundwater “at an unreasonable and excessive rate” on land the company owns in the Ranegras Plain basin, a sparsely populated part of La Paz County that includes the tiny communities of Vicksburg and Bouse.

The company set up shop there in 2014, according to the complaint, and its groundwater use has increased over time, to nearly 32,000 acre-feet in 2023.

That’s about 81% of estimated water use in the Ranegras basin.

But legal experts agree that this case has a steep hill to climb.

To be deemed a public nuisance, a court must find that Fondomonte knowingly harmed others. And not just a neighbor or two; there must be evidence that the company’s actions harmed wide sections of the community.

The complaint mentions two wells that have gone dry in that time, one less than a mile from the farm that went dry about five years ago, and a church’s well about 2 miles away that went dry in 2017.

Mayes will have to........

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