Wells are running dry in drought-weary Southwest as foreign-owned farms guzzle water to feed cattle

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Workers with the water district in Wenden, Arizona, saw something remarkable last year as they slowly lowered a camera into the drought-stricken town’s well: The water was moving.

But the aquifer which sits below the small desert town in the southwestern part of the state is not a river; it’s a massive, underground reservoir which stores water built up over thousands of years. And that water is almost always still.

Gary Saiter, a longtime resident and head of the Wenden Water Improvement District, said the water was moving because it was being pumped rapidly out of the ground by a neighboring well belonging to Al Dahra, a United Arab Emirates-based company farming alfalfa in the Southwest.

Al Dahra did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wells-are-running-dry-in-drought-weary-southwest-as-foreign-owned-farms-guzzle-water-to-feed-cattle-overseas/ar-AA13LnKs

[Sky Jewels]

1. I wish everyone would stop eating meat.

Ending the enablement of cruelty, confinement, and torture of animals and helping the environment and eating plant-based is a win-win-win for all.

[MLAA]

4. I'm on board.

[Sky Jewels]

5. ...

[MLAA]

9. 12 or 13 years

[Dave says]

16. Vegan here

[Sky Jewels]

18. Great!

Me too. (Although I go back to just vegetarian if I'm out to dinner or eating at a friend's house, etc., and it's too much hassle to get a vegan meal without it being a big production.)

[JCMach1]

2. For racing camels and horses... NOT people

[CrispyQ]

3. "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."

Kind of the same thing. How much of America is foreign owned? I'll bet we'd all be stunned to find out.

[Dave says]

17. Thank Reagan for getting this started

At the start of the Reagan administration, we owned 3.4 times more of the rest of the world than they owned of us. By the end, the world owned 0.7 times more of us than we owned of them. Those years changed everything and paved the way to where we are now.

[StarryNite]

6. This is a state issue and Gov Ducey has ignored it.

My son and his family just moved from an area north of Scottsdale because of the water issues. They were on a well with 4 other homes. At this point the well is producing but for how long? There are a lot of residents in that area who haul water which is bought from the city of Scottsdale. However, Scottsdale is turning off the spigot at the end of the year. Phoenix won't sell water out of their city limits anymore either. It's a huge mess and if something isn't done quick the area could turn into a ghost town. A lot of million dollar plus homes in that area.

[dalton99a]

11. +1. Rates will go up - drastically

[bronxiteforever]

7. Kick and recommend.Foreign ownership of US water supplies is insane.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

8. How dare other countries that have grown fabulously wealthy from us buying their natural resources

turn around and use that wealth to purchase our valuable natural resources.

[Faux pas]

10. Why

do ANY foreign countries OWN anything HERE?!?!!!! Who is selling it to them? Shit like this makes me LIVID.

[DamIfino]

12. While MAGATS were busy with their conspiracy theories, Trump was signing this Exec order

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-13956-modernizing-americas-water-resource-management-and-water

And of course special thanks to our AZ elected MAGAT officials, McSally, Gosar, Westerman, and Biggs, all by his side, and laughing all the way to the bank.

A very SPECIAL thanks to our new BFF Liz:
Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (WY-AL): “Today’s action by the Trump
Administration to modernize water resource management further demonstrates its commitment
to putting the needs of America’s ranchers, farmers, and families first. For too long the
regulatory process for constructing new water infrastructure projects has been a bureaucratic
maze including different federal, state, and local agencies.
Reducing burdensome red tape will mean greater access to clean water for communities across Wyoming which will lead to more economic growth and jobs in our state.”

Rather, the result will always be the opposite of what they say. Remove red tape so they can control and sell every fucking resource in the USA.

We didn't even get any OIL for feeding their GD cows!!!

IT IS OVER. I tried to have hope but I am afraid it is just too late.

[Emile]

13. Wells are drying up all over the Midwest too.

Thankfully I have never had a problem with my well.

[Samrob]

14. Few here wanted to believe my stories about foreign owned farms and livestock.

One time I was even accused of being "anti-immigrant" for pointing out that most of our food industry including farmland was owned by foreigners. So is most of our real estate properties which is a huge factor in the high cost of housing in the US...absentee landlords and owners. Too much housing being built for speculators buying up condo and rental properties in bulk before individual homebuyers can bid on new properties. Bought in bulk and sold at premium prices. Haven't seen any new affordable housing projects in Maryland but lots of million-dollar poor quality townhomes and condos and luxury apartments.

[Hortensis]

15. Not in any sense to endorse xenophobic nationalistic anxieties --

I do not. The race and religion of the Muslims involved in this, or that they are not American, are not the issue for me. It’d be just as bad if they were white secular Americans.

But according to something I read a long time ago, much of this water is going to grow alfalfa (along with other crops) for export.

Export to places that include China especially, and UAE and Saudi Arabia for some of the biggest.

Just for one example of something that is an issue is that these Middle Eastern nations boosted their oil prices forcing American gas prices higher in advance of the midterm elections. But in a bigger picture even, this is a way for water-challenged nations to take water that American growers need in America, that precious commodity along with the commodities grown, profits, etc. And how are our people benefiting? Or not?

One guess who they want controlling Congress and state governments.[b/]. The Republicans and those they front for as they betray the very people who elect them to power are everyone’s huge problem.