Report warns of water depletion

The latest report on Arkansas’ groundwater usage continues the bleak picture of its sustainability in the state, which is one of the largest water users in the United States and where water-intensive agriculture is the largest industry.

The Arkansas Groundwater Protection and Management Report for 2016 was released this month by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission.

Only 44.2 percent of

withdrawals — 7.6 billion gallons per day — are sustainable from the alluvial aquifer, which stretches from Ashley County in southeast Arkansas to Clay County in northeast Arkansas. The percentage rises to 55 percent for withdrawals — 160 million gallons per day — from the Sparta/ Memphis aquifer, according to the report’s analysis of 2015 water use data.

The projections, which have been similar for several years but disputed by some farmers, continue to serve as a warning in water-dependent Arkansas.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that, according to 2010 data, Arkansas was second in the nation in groundwater usage, behind California and just ahead of Texas. Arkansas accounted for 10 percent of all U.S. groundwater withdrawals that year, drawing 7.8 billion gallons of water per day. The state was 26th in surface water withdrawals that year, drawing 3.5 billion gallons of water per day. It was seventh in total water withdrawals.

Data based on the 2015 water survey have yet to be published.

Putting a specific date on when wells will run out is difficult because the tens of thousands of wells can draw from widely varying depths of an aquifer. But the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission report, along with officials in Arkansas, warn that changes need to be made in how farmers obtain and use

water so that farming can continue in the future at the same levels it does today.

“I think we should be concerned about it,” said Mike Daniels, a water quality and nutrient management specialist with the University of Arkansas System Agriculture Division’s Cooperative Extension Service. “If we deplete that aquifer, what are we going to do?”

Still, Daniels is optimistic. He notes all the programs the university works with farmers to implement, as well as programs at other state and federal agencies and universities that are designed to conserve water. He also notes that farmers appear to be much more aware and interested in better water-use practices.

Edward Swaim, water resources division manager at the commission, is optimistic, too. He said people may not sense any issues with water levels today, but that they may run into issues in the next five to 10 years that might prompt them to build a reservoir or pursue another project to keep farming without depending as much on their wells.

“I’m worried about the water because we know that we use more than nature can recharge, but we innovate pretty quickly,” Swaim said. “And where you have people who experience a problem, they have a lot of solutions available to them, and then they come up with more as they go.”

Conservation practices, such as building reservoirs and using water-efficient farming technology, must couple with more than $1 billion in surface-water conversion projects to keep Arkansas’ aquifers and the farms that use them viable, Swaim said.

Swaim’s thoughts were echoed in the report his office helped put together.

“If conservation and the development of excess surface water are not successfully implemented in the impaired areas in the future, the State will have to consider regulatory alternatives to preserve the aquifers at a sustainable level,” the report said.

The report recommends conservation and designation of areas as Critical Groundwater Areas, which opens opportunities for tax credits that could fund conservation and education programs. Arkansas Critical Groundwater Areas encompass eight entire counties and parts of 11 others, all in south and east Arkansas. Twelve entire counties and parts of 11 others are being studied for designation.

The commission’s report gleans its information from about 600 wells in the alluvial aquifer and 200 to 300 wells in the Sparta/Memphis aquifer.

While high rainfall last year helped the aquifers recharge a bit, the report noted continued declines over oneyear, five-year and 10-year spans in south and east Arkansas wells.

In the alluvial aquifer, 63.5 percent of wells monitored (250 of 394) showed

declines from 2006 to 2016. From 2011 to 2016, 56.2 percent of wells monitored (173 of 308) showed declines. The alluvial aquifer is the source of 95 percent of the groundwater used in Arkansas.

The Sparta/Memphis aquifer is much smaller, providing about 48 times less water than the alluvial aquifer. While many wells that draw from the aquifer have depleted in eastern Arkansas, the aquifer’s position in south Arkansas has greatly improved, providing a model for how to improve other unsustainable areas of the state.

In Union, Calhoun, Columbia and Ouachita counties in south Arkansas, wells’ water levels have largely increased over the years because industries are using excess water from the Ouachita River instead of withdrawing from the Sparta/Memphis aquifer.

That is similar to the revival Swaim wants to see with the Bayou Meto and Grand Prairie irrigation projects, which will send water from the Arkansas River to part of eastern Arkansas’ farmlands. The projects should reduce use of the alluvial aquifer by 15 percent, Swaim said.

One estimate for the Bayou Meto project has it being able to deliver water to farmers as early at 2019, but only if enough grant funding comes through, Swaim said.

“We need to start delivering that water,” he said.