ip photo: the Colorado River canyon just below Lake Mead
About 3 million acres of irrigated ag land in Western states are planted to alfalfa and it takes 3 to 6 acre-feet every year to water an acre of it — more in hotter, drier climates. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons. 
In the image on the right, taken by AP/Wide World Photo in 1948, "George Gillette, the tribal chairman of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota (aka Three Affiliated Tribes), weeping at Garrison Dam Agreement signing as he was forced to sell 153,000 acres of their Native American land to the federal government." Standing directly behind Gillette is Ben Reifel, who was then the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Superintendent of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Born into the Sicangu Oyate, Republican Reifel went on to win election to the US House of Reprsentatives in South Dakota's First Congressional District when there were two congressional districts in my home state.
Arizona lawmakers are moving to block the sale and lease of state lands to foreign governments and certain foreign corporations -- but not the one that has caused the concern in the first place. But Rep. Mariana Sandoval, D-Goodyear, pointed out that list does not include Saudi Arabia. And it is Fondomonte, a company controlled by Saudi interests, that is leasing 3,500 acres of state land in La Paz County and pumping huge quantities of groundwater to grow hay to feed cattle in Saudi Arabia, something that occurred after that water-starved country banned the growing of such crops there. [Arizona bill to block land sale to foreign governments doesn't include Saudi-leased land in La Paz County]The KSA gave $2 billion to the Trump Organization for stolen classified documents and to cover up the butchering of a journalist but China is the villain?
Rather than fears over an expansionist Chinese Communist Party, the discussion at that time centered around fears that nations flush with oil cash were planning to buy up land in the Midwest and drive up prices for local farmers. “There was talk that Saudi Arabia had a lot of extra money and they were going to start to buy up land in rural states,” Kent Frerichs, a sponsor on the 1979 law dealing with foreign ownership of agriculture land, recalled. “And that was what spurred my thought at the time.” [South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's new ag land proposal rehashes old debate]
In 2014 more than a dozen Ihanktonwan survivors of the Missouri River dam flooding in the 1950s banded together to seek compensation from the Yankton Sioux Tribal Business and Claims Committee. Today, the Lewis and Clark Rural Water System exists because farmers have poisoned their own wells and the Big Sioux River but South Dakota will flout Waters of the United States rulings until the cows come home unless or until downstream states cry foul.
There’s nothing preventing an out-of-state person or entity from seeking a Missouri River water right in South Dakota. Applications go to a state board that generally approves them if water is available and the application is for a “beneficial” use; however, requests for more than 10,000 acre-feet per year require legislative approval. [Will South Dakota be ready when other states come for our water?]
How will the Lewis and Clark water system boondoggle embolden the proponents of a pipeline to Rapid City? Will the military push Republicans to get on the socialist bandwagon? But a water pipeline from the Missouri River to Rapid City would cost almost $2 billion and rip up a few hundred miles of stolen treaty ground.
Urban planners are so desperate there is even talk of pumping Mississippi River water to the Southwest.
Learn more at High Country News.
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