Ariz. official questions Rhodes’ water methods on farm

KINGMAN, Ariz. — Las Vegas homebuilder turned Arizona farmer Jim Rhodes is not using water conservation techniques as promised to irrigate the alfalfa he is growing at his farm at Red Lake, about 20 miles north of Kingman, a Mohave County official said.

County Supervisor Gary Watson said he has been “lied to” by Rhodes’ representatives, who said in April that environmentally friendly drip tape systems would be used to conserve water that might otherwise be lost to wind, heat and the evaporative process when irrigating.

Instead, more than a dozen circle pivot irrigation systems have been erected that shoot water 10 feet or more into the air, Watson said a couple of days ago.

But Rhodes’ attorney Chris Stephens defended the farm’s water usage.

“I think it’s a simple case of the business is evolving. Jim tries to change and adapt,” Stephens said. He said that the overhead watering should help with dust complaints and that Rhodes remains committed to some use of the drip tape.

Watson also has expressed concern that Rhodes has not determined the size of his farm at Red Lake or how much water it might consume.

While agriculture foreman Steve Schmidt said in April that Rhodes intended to farm up to 7,500 acres at Red Lake, Rhodes already had proposed a 21,000 acre land exchange with the Bureau of Land Management in February to consolidate his farming acreage.

But Stephens said no one, including Rhodes, knows what will be the eventual size of the farm. The lawyer said that the viability of the venture won’t be determined until after the first alfalfa cutting, expected later this month.

“By the end of the year I think they will know the approximate yield and the approximate cost of pumping the water and I think all of those things will drive the size to some extent,” Stephens said.

Meanwhile, Watson and fellow Supervisor Jean Bishop said the BLM land exchange proposal provided the first chance for outsiders to challenge the massive farming operation and the water it might consume.

“This is the arena in which we can fight,” Watson said several days before a meeting held Tuesday about the land exchange proposal.

Representatives of federal, state, county, municipal, tribal and other agencies and stakeholders attended the meeting held in Kingman. A BLM official said the proposal was in its infancy of what could be a two-year-long evaluation process.

Hualapai tribal representatives asked how can appraisers put a price tag on historically or culturally sensitive lands that might be part of any exchange.

A representative of the National Park Service said his agency took no position on the land exchange at present but is interested in the five sections of land that Rhodes would give up at the south end of Lake Mead.

A rancher and a representative of the Arizona Game and Fish Department both indicated that they are generally supportive of property consolidation for management purposes but that they’ve not yet staked out any position on the proposed exchange.