Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has announced a major settlement involving groundwater usage.
Speaking Thursday afternoon in Cochise County, Mayes said the deal between Arizona and Riverview LLP will reduce the dairy’s groundwater usage and deliver $11 million for well-drilling, water hauling and groundwater access.
“In 2024, I stood here in this room filled with members of this community and heard countless stories of wells that had gone dry, roads and even houses that were damaged by land subsidence, and fears that without intervention, things would get worse and worse,” the Democratic attorney general told reporters at a community center in Pearce.
Land subsidence is the sinking or collapsing of surface land due to the removal of things such as underground water, oil or gas.
“Longtime residents told me that they were afraid that without intervention, they would not be able to stay in the communities they loved if groundwater supplies continued to be depleted,” said Mayes. “Retirees who had spent their life savings to buy property to live in this quiet and beautiful part of our state worried that their investments were at risk and did not know what they would do if they no longer could access water supplies.”
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