Agriculture agency sets 2 public meetings for stakeholder input

The Arkansas Department of Agriculture will host two public meetings this month seeking stakeholder engagement to “identify current water issues, needs and best practicable solutions” for the Arkansas Water Plan Update.

The first meeting is March 26 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Office located at 2301 S. University Ave. in Little Rock.

The second will be March 27 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences located at 1371 W. Altheimer Drive in Fayetteville.

More meetings will be held later, a Department news release said.

Representatives from all water use sectors, interested water planning groups, state and federal agencies, legislators and other local entities are encouraged to participate in the meetings, the release said.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued an executive order in August 2023 calling on Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward and Colclasure to perform a comprehensive analysis of the state’s water needs; the Arkansas Water Plan was last completed in 2014.

The updated plan will include “the state’s first-ever statewide flood plan,” the news release said.

Arkansas Natural Resources Commission members received a progress report from Colclasure on efforts to update the state’s water plan, six months after Sanders’ order, at a commission meeting on Feb. 28.

Sanders signed a memorandum of agreement with Commissioner of State Lands Tommy Land to conduct a statewide levee inventory on March 1.

The water plan update and development of a statewide flood plan is being done via collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.