PHOENIX — On Monday, Governor Katie Hobbs announced that the State Land Department has terminated one of the Fondomonte Arizona, LLC's four Butler Valley leases.
Hobbs says the State will not renew the company's other three leases in the Valley which will expire in February 2024.
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Today, I canceled one of Fondomonte’s Butler Valley leases and announced the State will not renew three other leases in February 2024.
— Governor Katie Hobbs (@GovernorHobbs) October 2, 2023
According to a release, Governor Hobbs "directed the State Land Department to conduct inspections of the leased property as part of a broader round of inspections of the largest state trust land leases, it was found that Fondomonte is in significant ongoing default of its lease dating back to 2016."
"It's unacceptable that Fondomonte has continued to pump unchecked amounts of groundwater out of our state while in clear default on their lease. I'm proud my administration has taken swift action to hold defaulting high-volume water users accountable and bring an end to these leases. And moving forward, I will continue to do everything in my power to protect Arizona's water so we can continue to sustainably grow for generations to come," said Governor Hobbs.
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In November 2016, Fondomonte was given a notice to cure numerous defaults under its Butler Valley leases, this included a failure to include secondary containment structures on its fuel and Diesel Exhaust Fluid storage units.
During an inspection in August, it was determined that Fondomonte had not corrected the default after almost seven years, according to a release.
