Dark-Money Lawsuit By Real Estate Developers In Arizona Tries To Defy Limits On Rapidly Vanishing Groundwater
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In the summer of 2023, the state of Arizona announced historic limits on development in the Phoenix area, prohibiting new development in some fast-growing Phoenix suburbs that would rely on quickly diminishing groundwater. It seemed a critical juncture for water policy in the Southwest — and a hint at the impending impacts of climate change on the desert city. Arizona’s real estate interests have spent the last year and a half trying to find a way around the limits — and now, aided by dark money forces, they’re taking this battle to the courts.
On Jan. 22, the Goldwater Institute, a dark money-backed conservative think tank known to wage legal battles on behalf of corporate interests, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Arizona’s real estate lobby challenging the state’s groundwater models, in an effort to green light new construction that state officials claim there is no groundwater to support in the long term. The lawsuit is an escalation of a battle that has been ramping up between Arizona’s developers — who are accustomed to building new housing that relies on well water — and state officials trying to manage the regional strain on water resources amid chronic overuse in the Phoenix area. It’s another example of the role that private interests will play in the looming water battles in the Southwest, which are only expected to intensify amid a climate crisis and worsening drought in the region.
The office of Arizona’s governor, Katie Hobbs (D), who has supported the groundwater models and pushed new water conservation efforts in the state, called the Goldwater Institute “partisan operatives working for their bad-actor developer donors and board members” in a statement to The Lever. “This is nothing but a shameless and partisan attack by bad actor developers trying to get a short-term profit by pumping the water out from under Arizona families and farmers,” a spokesperson for Hobbs’ office said.
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The Goldwater Institute — named for its benefactor, the conservative luminary and former Arizona Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater — wages legal battles around the country on behalf of conservative and dark money interests. The group has been spearheading efforts to weaken the Indian Child Welfare Act, a landmark law meant to prevent the separation of Native families, as well as cases around the country that attack the rights of trans children in public schools. Goldwater is a particularly powerful force in Arizona politics, often intervening to challenge cities and state regulators in court on issues like taxes and charter schools. The group has deep pockets: It takes in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from DonorsTrust, a dark money group tied to the libertarian political network founded by petrochemical tycoons Charles and David Koch. The institute is also leading the fight to strike down Arizona’s recently passed dark money transparency law, one of the strongest in the country.
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https://www.levernews.com/the-american-dream-water-not-included/