By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Rep. Rick Crawford (R- Jonesboro) told Bayou Meto Water District board members and employees this week that he would be their advocate when House and Senate Water and Energy Bill conferees hammer out appropriations.
Crawford was on the fourth day of a five-day farm tour in his district. Later in the day, he was slated to visit the Grand Prairie Irrigation project board.
A continuing resolution would fund Bayou Meto at $5 million — enough to prevent mothballing the project and the giant irrigation pumps near Scott and Reydell, but not enough to move the project forward in a timely manner. Sullivan told Crawford they need another $13 million from the water and energy bill, which is currently in the Senate bill but not in the House bill.
Crawford said that as a subcommittee chairman, he would probably be on the joint conference committee and that he would seek House support to use the Senate version of that bill.
Bayou Meto Water District executive director Gene Sullivan said, if the project is funded for the next two years, the Army Corps of Engineers says the irrigation component would be available by the 2017 growing season. Sullivan said, if necessary money is available — $29 million over the next two years — water may be available for Indian Bayou farmers a year earlier.
About $90 million in federal, state and local money has been spent so far on the irrigation, conservation and flood control project intended to irrigate 300,000 acres, much of it in Lonoke County when completed, according to Sullivan.
“I was pleased,” with Crawford’s comments said Sullivan, as was the board as a whole.
He called that appropriation “the critical issue,” at this time. It funds the Army Corps of Engineers work.
Since earmarks are no longer permitted and this is a time when Congress seems disinclined to spend money, the eventual 300,000-acre irrigation plan has been scaled back to 90,000 acres on or near Indian Bayou, Sullivan explained.
The project does have an estimated $9.7 million to bring dedicated electrical lines from North Little Rock to the Marion Berry Pump Station near Scott. North Little Rock Electric will supply the electricity to pump the water from the Arkansas River into canals.
On the south end, Entergy will power the pumps moving flood water back into the river, Sullivan said, adding that figuring out the cost of bringing in that electricity is not a firm target. He noted, “We don’t have the money for the lower end pump station.”
Sullivan told Crawford, “We have got an application for a $20 million loan from the Rural Development Administration.” That would go for matching funds for building bridges and other local match money, he said.
Four bridges will be needed to span the canal that would move water into Indian Bayou.
Farmers in the district have been taxing themselves for eight years to pay for this project, from which they will still buy irrigation water.
Congress seems to somewhat confuse the Bayou Meto project with the Grand Prairie Project, about which several environmental concerns, such as habitat for the endangered Ivory-billed Woodpecker, have been raised.
After seeing the troubles and conflict that developed over the Grand Prairie Project — which dates back to the mid 1980s — those driving the Bayou Meto project worked hand in hand with environmentalists, hunters and other groups to address all concerns right out of the box, according to Sullivan. He was involved with Grand Prairie before he hired on with Bayou Meto.
One cause for optimism is that Maj. Gen. John Peabody, who “hadn’t been a real champion of groundwater,” is better educated on the issue.
Sullivan said now Peabody “sees that as a major mission and probably the biggest resource problem we have in this century.”
Peabody, who has been the Army Corps Vicksburg commander, is moving to Washington to replace Maj. Gen. Michael J. Walsh, deputy commanding general for civil and emergency operations since December 2011.
“If we can get leadership together in D.C. with some of you guys,” Sullivan said to Crawford, “we have some pretty good results.”
