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.

 

A Short History of Rice Farming on the Grand Prairie

Arkansas’ Grand Prairie Region

The Grand Prairie stretches from Dewitt, Arkansas at its southern extremity, northward to Wattensaw Wildlife Management Area near DeValls Bluff.

At the turn of the century, most of the original prairie land was not being farmed. The soil’s claypan made tillage difficult and reduced yields for deeper rooted crops making the land suitable only for haying and grazing livestock.  By 1904, it was realized that the shallow layer of clay made the soil suitable for rice production by enabling the soil to hold surface water.  Well drilling technology for rice production was soon expanded to more than 100,000 acres by 1920 with more groundwater being pumped from the Alluvial Aquifer that could be naturally recharged.

The Rice and Duck Capital of the World – For How Long?

The region’s first water storage reservoir was build along Elm Prong Mill Bayou just south of Stuttgart by A.A. Tindall. Mr. Tindall built the water storage to help irrigate his rice. Thousands of migrating waterfowl began using the reservoir after feeding in the nearby rice fields. Sportsmen and women, as well as the ducks, started flocking to the Grand Prairie region.  With 150,000 acres of rice and 2 – 3 million wintering ducks estimated to be in the area, the Grand Prairie quickly became known as “the rice and duck capital of the world”.

The abundance of groundwater buffered the effects of the Great Depression and the Drought and Stuttgart, Arkansas soon became the region’s largest incorporated town.  Stuttgart became an agribusiness hub servicing the farmers of the Grand Prairie.  During the 1970’s and 1980’s, the allotment system for rice was abolished and rice acreage jumped from 200,000 acres to over 1.5 million acres putting even more pressure on the already unsustainable pumping of groundwater.

Presently, the harvest and sale of rice and other agricultural commodities annually garners a multi-million dollar economic bounty for the region, and, once harvested, these same fields provide exceptional recreational opportunity for thousands of waterfowl hunters. Economically, rice is still the most important crop to the region, but unsustainable use of groundwater for the past 100 years has put the Grand Prairie’s economy and cultural identity at risk.