LITTLE ROCK — The congressional ban on earmarks is closing the spigot on federal funding for two major water projects critical to eastern Arkansas farmers, officials said.
The Grand Prairie and Bayou Meto irrigation projects, in the planning stages for years and projected to cost nearly $1 billion, are less than one-fourth finished and federal funding is drying up.
Officials with both water irrigation districts, engineers in charge of both projects and representatives of the U.S. Corps. of Engineers are scheduled to meet Tuesday to evaluate prospects for additional funding. If new revenue can’t be found, officials will begin to mothball both projects, Randy Young, executive director of the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, said last week.
“That would be a killer,” said Dennis Carman, chief engineer and director of the Grand Prairie Irrigation Project.
“We do have momentum going right now. We’ve got a lot of things going on the positive side, but I will tell you that if we get into the situation where we mothball, it takes an enormous effort to get it started again,” Carman said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“That would be a major blow, not just to the Grand Prairie and the Bayou Meto, but for that matter the whole state,” Carman added, noting the continuing drop in the underground water table and the severe drought conditions statewide.
For more than a decade, water experts and geologists have been warning about depletion of the primary source of irrigation water for eastern Arkansas farmers.
To curtail the depletion of the shallow Alluvial aquifer, along with the much deeper Sparta aquifer that provides water for both drinking and industrial use in the region, state and federal officials developed two irrigation projects to divert river water to farmers for their crops.
About 65 percent of funding for the two projects is to come from the federal government, with 35 percent from state and local sources, including bonds, which would be repaid by revenue generated by the sale of the river water to the farmers.
The $450 million Grand Prairie Irrigation Project, now under construction, will divert water from the White River to more than 1,000 farmers in Arkansas, Lonoke, Monroe and Prairie counties. The project, which will be 50 miles in length when completed, also includes on-farm conservation in the form of reservoirs and tail water recovery systems.
The $575 million Bayou Meto Project, also under construction, will pump water from the Arkansas River to reservoirs in Arkansas, Jefferson, Lonoke, Prairie and Pulaski counties. It also includes on-farm water reservoirs and tailwater recovery systems.
Along with easing demands on the aquifer and irrigating more than 300,000 acres of farmland, officials say the Bayou Meta project also will control flooding and protect 55,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat.
Young told the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs last week that about $132 million — $99 million in federal money and $33 million in state and local funds — has already been spent on the Grand Prairie Project and it is about 23 percent complete. The canal from the White River to the planned pumping station at DeValls Bluff has been dug, the substructure of the pump station has been built and water discharge pipes have been installed.
The Bayou Meto Project is about 13 percent complete and $81 million — $60 million from the federal government and $21 million in state and local funds — has been spent, Young said, noting that two pumping stations are under construction.
“We’ve certainly got a major hurdle to overcome to get federal funding to complete these projects,” Young said. “One thing the Corps is looking at is to see if they have the ability to reprogram some of the money that has been appropriated, for example in the Lower Mississippi Valley … reprogram some of that money to these projects. If we can get that done, it will preclude us from essentially shutting construction on the two projects.”
Cheryl Willis, a public affairs specialist with the Corps of Engineers Memphis District, said last week that the “reprogramming request under consideration would move surplus funds from other projects.”
If that money can’t be obtained, she said “we will do an orderly shutdown of the project to ensure minimal impact to these projects until they are funded again.”
For decades, members of Congress used earmarks to direct federal funding to individual projects in their home states. For smaller, rural states like Arkansas, earmarks have been a primary source of funding for infrastructure projects such as irrigation systems and water and sewage treatment plants.
In Arkansas, for example, the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, built more than 40 years ago, was funded through earmarks.
Early in 2011, in a break with congressional Democrats, President Obama announced he would veto any appropriation containing earmarks and the U.S. House, newly under Republican control, approved a two-year moratorium on the process following an outcry were that lawmakers’ focus on “pork” projects was contributing to federal deficit.
Without them, officials said, Arkansas and other small states lack the political clout to contend for funding for much needed projects with larger, more politically influential states and cities.
Michael Teague, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said the senator, who opposes the ban on earmarks, tried last year to get money for the two irrigation projects but lost out on funding that went to projects in Mississippi and Tennessee.
This year, Teague said, Pryor has worked to craft language to direct funding to a number of Arkansas projects that go through the approval process.
“They are not an earmark,” he said. “It is an open, transparent way of making Grand Prairie and Bayou Meto competitive in a more specific group, so they are not competing against like the Great Lakes (for funding) which they are always going to lose.”
He also said Pryor has gotten a green light in the Senate to reprogram some money within the Corps budget to give the two projects “some money this year.”
Pryor’s funding proposal is now before the House.
Some Republicans in the the state’s congressional delegation, who supported the moratorium on earmarks last year have indicated they are willing to consider bringing them back if reforms in the earmark process are made, said last week they are working on ways to free up funding for the two irrigation projects.
“Many people in Washington see Arkansas as ‘flyover’ country and they do not understand the unique production methods used by Arkansas farmers,” U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro said. “While Congress tries to do more with less, I am working to educate members of Congress from other areas of the country that irrigation systems insure crop production against losses, and will ultimately save the government from expensive crop insurance programs.”
Crawford has said he would consider lifting the ban on earmarks as long as the system is transparent and everyone knows in advance that the requests have been made.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., opposed earmarks as a House member before being elected to the Senate in 2010 and has also expressed willingness to consider reforms to restore the process.
Boozman spokesman Patrick Creamer said the senator “is working with the (congressional) delegation to secure funding into U.S. Army Corps of Engineers programs and U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that could provide direct funding as well as loan guarantees to support these projects.”
Boozman also supports efforts to move unused Corps of Engineers money from other projects to the irrigation projects, Creamer said.
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, has indicated he might be open to earmark reforms.
Womack said he supports both the Grand Prairie and Bayou Meto projects and is working “to find innovative, long-term solutions that target funding to rural areas like eastern Arkansas where public-private partnerships have earned our support.”
“In a climate of declining revenue and competing demands — including Congress’ ban on earmarks — it is all the more important to work with those projects where local public and private dollars are invested,” he said.