The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission will set public hearings for this summer on the state's proposed water plan, which has projected unsustainable levels of groundwater use in half of the state and made mitigation recommendations.
The announcement came Wednesday at the commission's third meeting of 2015 and a week after officials learned that Gov. Asa Hutchinson's office had approved the plan after a four-month review, moving it to the public hearing phase.
Edward Swaim, the Natural Resources Commission's water division manager, said he didn't foresee any big hurdles for the plan before it can be adopted into his agency's rules.
"I think really what we did in the planning part of this process resulted in consensus," Swaim said.
However, some dissent has arisen over a part of the water plan that encourages the Arkansas Legislature to require nutrient-management plans for applying poultry litter and animal manure on land throughout the state -- an issue that Swaim said is unresolved.
Nutrient-management plans require farmers to take precautions to mitigate polluted runoff into water supplies. Farmers in Northwest Arkansas are required to do nutrient-management plans by state law after a series of legal disputes involving the Illinois River watershed.
Commissioner Sloan Hampton of Stuttgart argued against including the provision in the plan in the fall because it felt like a "penalty."
Commissioner Jerry Hunton of Prairie Grove argued in favor of the provision, calling uniformity of poultry rules across the state an issue of fairness.
In Northwest Arkansas, farmers consult conservation districts, which are given money by the commission, to implement the plan, Swaim said.
The $4 million water plan, funded by the Legislature in 2012, has projected groundwater shortages in the state's eastern half unless measures are taken to soften the blow.
The plan calls for measuring groundwater with meters in certain wells, storing excess surface water, evaluating the effectiveness of existing tax credits and incentives for irrigation water conservation, and a re-evaluation of the limit on water use for homes or businesses not along bodies of water.
Most of the plan is focused on updating the state's water use and supply data. Nearly all of the recommendations are things the state already has started doing, but the plan is considered a rule-making process that would be adopted into the commission's official rules.
After a voter referendum in 2014 and an executive order from Hutchinson's office in January, all new rule-makings must go through the governor's office before public hearings are set, then must be approved by the Legislature.
"We don't want to have an impediment to business in Arkansas," Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said. "Basically, we're looking to make sure this isn't a bottleneck or something that's going to make things more difficult."
No public hearings have been scheduled.
Natural Resources Commission Executive Director J. Randy Young said Wednesday that he thought a hearing should be held in all eight planning districts in the state; commission legal counsel Crystal Phelps agreed.
Natural Resources Commission and water plan officials traveled the state in 2013 and 2014, holding public meetings about the water plan and accepting feedback before sending the plan to the governor's office.
The public hearings and public comment period this time would result in recorded comments that commission officials may factor into the plan before they send it to the Legislature, Swaim said.
Metro on 05/21/2015