(Washington) – A coalition of Chambers of Commerce, conservationists, sportsmen, and farmers today unveiled a $144 million plan to meet the long term irrigation needs of Arkansas’ Grand Prairie. The group’s plan, which was presented at a press conference in Little Rock, is an alternative to a controversial $319 million plan devised by the Army Corps of Engineers to pump water out of the White River and distribute it to more than 800 farms in the Grand Prairie using an extensive new pipeline and ditch system.

“In addition to saving Grand Prairie farmers and U.S. and Arkansas taxpayers $175 million, the alternative plan would also better provide for the long-term irrigation needs of the Grand Prairie than the Corps’ plan,” said Jeff Stein, Water Resources Program Coordinator for Taxpayers for Common Sense, a national budget watchdog group.

According to Corps project documents, its plan would only irrigate 209,046 acres. The alternative plan would more fully meet the water needs of Grand Prairie farming through the use of on-farm storage reservoirs, better conservation efforts, investments in technology that increase irrigation efficiency, taking marginal farmland out of production through several existing government programs, and limited pumping from traditional sources.

“Everyone being asked to pay for the Corps project should be concerned that, despite the Corps’ intention to deploy more than $300 million and hundreds of miles of pipeline and ditches, they still can’t guarantee that the Grand Prairie’s water needs will be fully met and that local aquifers will stop being depleted,” continued Stein.

The Corps’ Grand Prairie irrigation project is the first of fourteen irrigation projects the agency hopes to build in Arkansas. If all projects are built, the cumulative costs would be more than $1 billion. Both opponents and proponents of the Corps’ irrigation plan see the outcome of the debate on the Grand Prairie irrigation project as precedent setting.

“If the Corps’ large structural plan proceeds, then the other planned projects are also likely to be built with pipe and concrete, leading to the Californiazation of Arkansas,” said Stein. “If, on the other hand, common sense water management solutions prevail over pumps and concrete, then taxpayers stand to save hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.”

In fact, in an internal strategic planning document titled the “Program Growth Initiative” the Corps identified water supply in the Grand Prairie as a major new work opportunity. This mission creep into irrigation falls outside the scope of the Corps’ primary mission areas as defined by law. This, combined with a general effort to limit new spending, led President Bush to cut all funding for the Grand Prairie irrigation project in his budget for fiscal year 2002.   

Contact: Keith Ashdown

Tel: (202) 546-8500 ext.110

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