Water plan updates discussed
Stakeholders share concerns about a variety of state issues
STUTTGART — Arkansas farmers and others meeting Thursday with state officials to discuss an update to the 2014 Arkansas Water Plan said they are primarily concerned about water conservation, agricultural water access, preserving the state’s groundwater and irrigation technology.
The gathering at the Rice Research and Extension Center in Stuttgart was the sixth public meeting with stakeholders to discuss the water plan.
Some said there are concerns about the possibility that farmers will have to pay to import water because of groundwater depletion, which would cut into their profits. Agricultural advocates and irrigation experts also spoke about the proliferation of more sustainable farming practices and technology that could save water.
“One of the things we talk about a lot is how much productive farmland has been taken out of production and been replaced with reservoirs to alleviate groundwater (loss) as much as possible, so one thing we would love to see is recognition of the farmers that have taken that on,” Riceland Foods Director of Sustainability Adam Shea said.
There have been changes to state law and there are tax credits to incentivize groundwater to surface water conversion efforts, Agricultural Council of Arkansas Executive President and Executive Director Andrew Grobmyer said, adding there are also federal incentives via the federal Farm Bill and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Grobmyer said there may be opportunities in the future to further expand incentives to protect groundwater.
Producers in other parts of Arkansas, not just the agriculture-centric Delta region, will also need assistance in the next water plan, said Mike Hamilton, irrigation specialist for the UA Cooperative Extension Service.
“For anybody that’s involved in funding projects, I think we need to direct those funds to not just the Delta,” Hamilton said.
Chris Henry, associate professor and water management engineer who conducts research at the Rice Research and Extension Center, said there has been growth in adoption of water-saving practices in Arkansas since the state’s water plan was last updated in 2014 and said more information is available today than 10 years ago.
Henry has been developing a pit-less tailwater recovery irrigation system that helps farmers save water when used with furrow irrigation.
Henry emphasized there is a need for public access to data on how much water is being pumped from the ground in Arkansas, as well as climate data related to weather. He said some data on water from wells in Arkansas is available, but not for water use on a large scale.
He said an effort to collect data on climate and water use of a larger scale is a critical need in Arkansas.
“The need for us to better understand how much water we’re using is paramount,” said Michele Reba, research hydrologist with the the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service in Jonesboro.
“The climate data is interesting and yes, it would be helpful, but the fact that we don’t have a good sense of how much water we’re actually pumping is astounding.”
The 2022 groundwater report released in April 2023 found that water levels in Arkansas’ two most important aquifers — the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer for agriculture and the Sparta-Memphis aquifer for drinking and industrial uses — were continuing to decline and that the withdrawal rates were unsustainable.
The 2023 groundwater report has not yet been released, though Geology Supervisor Blake Forrest with the Arkansas Department of Agriculture said in February that official report results would be finalized soon.
Since March, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture has held stakeholder meetings in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, Magnolia and now Stuttgart, to talk with stakeholders about identifying current water issues, needs and potential solutions.
The update to the state’s water plan will include the development of a statewide flood plan in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The governor signed a memorandum of agreement with Commissioner of State Lands Tommy Land in March to conduct a statewide levy inventory as part of a larger review and update of the state’s water plan.
State Agriculture Secretary Wes Ward and Chris Colclasure, the director of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Division, attended Thursday’s meeting.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders assigned Ward and Colclasure to perform a comprehensive analysis of the state’s water needs in an executive order in August.
The first phase of the plan is to be completed within a year of the governor’s order and must include a review of the last water plan to determine any needed changes, policy recommendations, projected usage and demand for available water.
The agriculture secretary will submit a report with a work plan, schedule and anticipated costs to complete a second phase of the updated water plan to the governor within that time frame.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with Michael Baker International and the Little Rock-based engineering and environment consulting firm FTN Associates on the water plan update, Colclasure told the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission in February. Colclasure told board
members in February that the first six months of the project was being spent on scoping, setting goals and objectives for a plan that will ultimately take a couple of years to complete.
There will be a seventh stakeholder meeting on May 10 at the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Office, 2301 S. University Ave. in Little Rock.