Grand Prarie Area Demonstration Project

What is the solution to the Grand Prairie's declining water table? The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE), in cooperation with the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC), determined that the solution was to acquire more water instead of better management of available water by constructing a massive and costly irrigation project, the Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project (GPADP). 

The construction of the GPADP and other planned irrigation projects will move the state towards abandonment of the riparian rights doctrine, where landowners have the right to reasonable use of water resources. Future irrigation projects will require an allocation/prior appropriation system similar to those in western states where a government or quasi-government agency oversees allocations.

This shift in Arkansas water law, will support construction of 11 stream diversion projects slated for construction around the state, 4/5 of which are planned in the White River or its tributaries.  All of these projects involve subsidies on both the state and federal level. They also involve diversion of water from water bodies, such as the White River, resulting in negative impacts to those ecosystems.  The irrigation projects take the control of water from the farmer and replace it with irrigation districts that will control the price and distribution of diverted water. 

A major complaint among landowners opposed to the project is the loss of control of water. Although the ANRC will be the organization charged with controlling the amount of groundwater that will be pumped in the region of the GPADP, a recent survey conducted by the University of Arkansas Survey Research Center (UASRC) showed that about 60 percent of the area’s landowners who claim to know about the project, believe that the landowners (56%) or no one (3.7%) will exercise the control of pumping groundwater. Just over 22% of landowners correctly identify the ANRC as the agent controlling the pumping of groundwater from the Grand Prairie and Sparta aquifers. Conflicting survey results such as this example show that landowners within the GPADP lack accurate information about the project.