By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A $65 million project initiated to reverse depletion of an important South Arkansas water source has performed beyond expectations, officials heard today.
In some areas, the underground Sparta Aquifer has risen 50 feet in just over four years,
Todd Fugitt of Arkansas Natural Resources Commission told the state Agriculture Board.
Fugitt also said six counties the northeastern part of the state — Clay, Craighead, Cross, Greene, Poinsett and St. Francis — submitted petitions last month seeking critical groundwater area designations because a portion of their underground water supply — the Alluvial Aquifer — is being depleted.
The area affected is west of Crowley’s Ridge, which cuts through those six counties.
“They’re doing in Northeast Arkansas what needs to be done,” state Agriculture Secretary Richard Bell said.
The Agriculture Board oversees the state’s Department of Agriculture, which was created in 2005 and includes the Livestock and Poultry Commission, Forestry Commission and State Plant Board, among others.
Fugitt said today the Union County water conservation project, completed in 2005, converted three of the larger industrial plants in the county from heavy users of the underground Sparta Aquifer into to using water from the Ouachita River for cooling and steam needs. The project was funded with a 1-cent county sales tax.
“It’s a real success story,” he said, noting that in some areas of the county the aquifer has risen 50 feet since mid-2005.
In Northeast Arkansas, Crowley’s Ridge acts as a natural barrier preventing the Mississippi River from replenishing the Alluvial Aquifer, which is west of the ridge, Fugitt explained.
Officials in the region are seeking critical groundwater status because the aquifer is drying up as a result, he said.
Since 1996, two regions of the state have been declared critical groundwater areas — Union County and six others which rely on the deep Sparta Aquifer for municipal as well as industrial water and the Grand Prairie counties of Arkansas, Prairie and Jefferson, along with parts of Lonoke, Pulaski and White, which rely on the more shallow Alluvial Aquifer for irrigation.
David Feilke, a member of both the Agriculture Board the Natural Resources Commission, said public hearings are scheduled for mid-September in each of the six northeastern Arkansas counties affected.
A critical groundwater designation allows federal, state and local groups to work together on conservation and education, Fugitt said. In an interview, he said the counties would be eligible for conservation tax incentives and some federal assistance.
Also today, Fugitt reported that federal funding delays have put on hold the $319 million Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project to irrigate the region with water from the White River.
A federal judge recently ruled against environmental groups that had raised concerns that the project would hurt the eastern Arkansas habitat of the long-thought-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker.
The board also voted to send a letter the state’s congressional delegation in opposition to Senate Bill 787, the compromise Clean Water Restoration Act. They board expressed concern the measure would expand the federal government’s regulatory reach and promote more bureaucracy.
