Farmer Gary Bredlow, left, and Pulaski County Extension Agent Allan Beuerman, stand next to large pipes used to carry Arkansas River water to Plum Bayou for farmers to irrigate their crops in southeast Arkansas. (Rob Moritz photo)

LITTLE ROCK — The four Plum Bayou Irrigation Project pumps weren’t needed much this summer because of the unusually wet weather, says farmer Gary Bredlow, who grows beans and rice on about 2,000 acres in southeast Pulaski County, not far the Jefferson and Lonoke county lines.

But since the irrigation project was dedicated 17 years ago, the pumps, which draw water from the Arkansas River into the bayou for farmers to use to water their crops, have been a lifesaver for Bredlow and 15 other farmers who work 14,000 acres in the tri-county region near England.

“We consider ourselves very fortunate,” Bredlow said.

Without the demonstration project, many of the farmers would probably have gone under during hot weather and drought conditions because their underground water source was running dry, said Luchen Walls Sr., who farmed 300 acres in the area until last year.

“We had to build it because we were fixin’ to lose our land,” said Walls, first chairman of the Plum Bayou Irrigation District.

In fact, the successful demonstration project, one of the first of its kind in the country, is credited with changing water management techniques in the state and laying the ground work for other large-scale water irrigation projects either about to get under way, being studied or already completed.

Lawmakers were briefed on the success of the Plum Bayou Irrigation Project during a field trip last week to learn more about the groundwater shortage and some of the conservation programs now under way in eastern Arkansas to ease the problem.

“This project has been looked at by a lot of people,” said Earl Smith, chief of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission’s water resources management division.

“It was a demonstration of these techniques on a small scale so we could see if these things were in fact feasible,” said Smith. “That allowed us to go through the feasibility phase and the design phase of those based on some real world experiences.”

“I’d certainly say (the Plum Bayou project) was a strong hand in going forward with those other projects,” he said.

Those two projects are proceeding as funding becomes available.

The Grand Prairie Irrigation Project, estimated to cost about $319 million, would have the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct an intricate system of canals and piping to bring more than 115 billion gallons of water a year from the White River to about 1,000 farmers in Monroe, Arkansas and Prairie counties.

For years environmentalists have been trying to stop the project. Their most recent lawsuit argued that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not conduct a thorough enough study before determining that the project would not harm the habitat of the ivory-billed woodpecker.

A federal judge in December dismissed that lawsuit.

Stacy Oullette, media relations coordinator for the Corps, said last week that bids have been let for digging a ditch, or canal, that would connect the White River at DeValls Bluff to a planned pumping station.

That project has been delayed by weather and high water and should begin “when water levels allow,” she said.

She said the project is being funded with a $10 million federal appropriation.

The planned Bayou Meto project, which also involves the Corps of Engineers, would pump water from the Arkansas River to reservoirs in Jefferson, Arkansas, Prairie and Lonoke counties.

Cost of the project is about $575 million.

Meanwhile, a third Corps project, the Boeuf-Tensas, in southeastern Arkansas, which would divert surface water from the Arkansas River to about 800,000 acres of farmland in Ashley, Chicot, Desha, Drew, Jefferson and Lincoln counties, is currently being studied.

And in August, Todd Fugitt of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, told the state Agriculture Board that in some areas the underground Sparta Aquifer in South Arkansas, has risen 50 feet in just over four years because the Union County water conservation project, which converted larger industrial plants in that county from using the aquifer into using water from the Ouachita River for cooling and steam needs.

The Plum Bayou Irrigation Project pumps water from an Arkansas River backwater between Wright and Scott through an 8,000-foot canal and into the bayou, which twists and turns through Jefferson, Pulaski and Lonoke counties.

To pay for the cost of operating the system, the district levees a flat land improvement tax on irrigated land and charges a per acre-foot for water pumped.

Walls said switching from wells to river water caused his expenses to drop about 75 percent.

Since the project was completed in 1992, Walls said people from across the country who were having similar water problems began calling to get more information. Many actually visited the area to learn more about the water management technique.

“We’ve had people from California, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, call and
come in to look at,” he said.

Groups from Germany, Italy and Mexico also have visited.

Gene Sullivan, who was state conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service when the Plum Bayou project was built, said it did provide valuable information for future projects.

“That was just to show how we could take water out of the Arkansas River and use it effectively to cut down on the withdrawals on the groundwater,” said Sullivan, who is now executive director of the Bayou Meto Water District.

“Yes, it was a very, very effective project and we still are utilizing that information,” he said.