Facing drought, Western states seek to deny groundwater to foreign companies

Just off an arid stretch of highway in western Arizona, a Saudi dairy company pumps unrestricted amounts of groundwater from underneath its fields, uses it to grow thousands of acres of alfalfa and ships the bales of hay overseas to feed cows more than 8,000 miles away. Arizona officials now want to stop them. As the American West battles its worst megadrought in more than 1,200 years, state elected officials throughout the region are rethinking how groundwater is used and who gets access to it — with some even targeting foreign-owned companies. Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Arizona, ...