A company made millions selling farmland water rights to Queen Creek, and the practice is growing
A water transfer from a small western Arizona town to a growing East Valley community has some observers concerned. About a decade ago, a company called Greenstone bought nearly 500 acres of land in the town of Cibola, in La Paz County. But, a few years later, Greenstone sold the water rights for that farmland to Queen Creek. In the process, the company made about $14 million in profit. Since then, La Paz and two other Arizona counties have sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, arguing the agency didn’t consider the long-term implications when it approved the deal. A judge this year sided with those counties, and told the bureau to essentially redo its environmental assessment of the arrangement.
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