Statewide Water Plan
LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Agriculture Department has completed a series of public hearings on updates to the statewide water plan, which hasn’t been modified in 10 years.
For the first time, the water plan developed this year will include ways to prepare for floods and to mitigate as much damage as possible caused by flooding.
In an executive order last year the governor directed the department to update the statewide water plan to account for population growth and the demands that growth has imposed on area water systems. The goal is to guarantee long-term supplies of clean drinking water, while also ensuring that agriculture and industry have the water resources they need.
The new water plan must factor in aging infrastructure, an issue throughout Arkansas whether the area is densely or sparsely populated.
State officials are working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has vast experience in flood control, navigation and irrigation projects.
The plan is not limited to the use of surface water in rivers, streams and lakes. It includes ground water pumped by wells, which accounts for 71 percent of the water use in Arkansas. Legislators on the Senate and House Committees on City, County and Local Affairs heard a progress report on the new water plan at a recent meeting.
Crop irrigation accounts for 80 percent of the demand for ground water, while 3.5 percent of ground water is for municipal drinking water. Manufacturing and power plants use the rest.
In a 10-year period ending last December, Arkansas farmers drilled more than 9,700 wells. Livestock and poultry growers drilled another 1,055 wells. In that period homeowners drilled more than 6,400 wells and 58 wells were drilled for public water supplies. Commercial entities drilled 104.
Arkansas has legally binding, multi-state compacts with neighboring states that govern our use of rivers and waterways. For example, we are in a compact with Oklahoma that protects the quality of the Arkansas River. A multi-state compact with Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico protects the quality of the Canadian River before it flows into waterways that enter Arkansas from the west.
Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas are in a similar compact to protect the Red River before it flows into Louisiana.
It is costly and time consuming to build systems that deliver clean water and that safely process waste water. Act 605 of 2021 addresses the challenge of requiring water systems to plan for future needs by conducting rate studies, to determine whether water bills are sufficient to pay for needed, and expected, long term repairs.
Act 605 requires eight hours of training for everyone on the boards that oversee water systems. The individuals in charge need to know what it takes to operate a utility.
Under the act, state authorities will be notified if a system falls into financial distress, and the state will recommend measures to make it solvent.
Arkansas is blessed with an abundance of water, especially when compared to western states. Even so, it can be politically controversial to set priorities over the use of water because it affects so many people’s health and their livelihoods.