Riverview LLP, a major dairy that operates across the Southwest and Upper Midwest, has agreed to fallow 2,000 acres of irrigated Arizona farmland to settle a dispute with the state over groundwater pumping.
Minnesota-based Riverview agreed as part of the settlement to put $11 million into two funds to aid Arizona property owners struggling with water access issues, according to a press release published on Riverview’s website. One $5.5 million fund will be administered by Riverview, while the other will be administered by a non-profit entity.
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In a press release, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called the settlement “an immediate and concrete action to address the increasingly dangerous depletion of groundwater in rural parts of our state.”
Farms and communities across the West have been dealing with increasing stress on groundwater supplies in recent years, a trend that sparked the legal action.
