Bayou Meto Water Management District

Note: Land owned by the Bayou Meto Water Management District is for project operation and is NOT publicly accessible for recreation.

Irrigated, row-crop farming of soybeans, rice, cotton, corn, and sorghum is the primary driver of the economy of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain of East Arkansas. Irrigation water availability and good drainage are essential.

About 85 percent of the water used for irrigation in Arkansas comes from the ground. Although Arkansas has abundant surface water, groundwater has been the preferred source. Not all farmland has access to surface water and moving it long distances is often more expensive than pumping from shallow wells. Beginning around 1920, rice farmers in Arkansas County noted that the level of the shallow and prolific alluvial aquifer declined from year-to-year. The United States Geological Survey began studying groundwater in the state and continues an extensive monitoring program one hundred years later.

The Bayou Meto Water Management Project was conceived in the 1930s as a way to improve drainage in sluggish Delta streams, thus reducing flood damage and to put a fraction of the volume of the Arkansas River to work to irrigate nearby farms. In 1950, the Congress authorized the project, but did not provide money for construction. Continuing resource problems reinvigorated interest, and the project was reauthorized in 1996. Planning and design culminated in construction of the Marion Berry Pump Station at Scott, Arkansas, and the Little Bayou Meto Pump Station at Reydell, Arkansas, 49 straight-line miles from the Marion Berry Pump Station. Both stations were completed by 2015, and construction continues on the network of canals and pipelines to distribute the water to approximately 268,000 square miles of farmland. Water will not be pumped for several more years.

The Little Bayou Meto Pump Station will remove water from the lower project area, including the 33,000-acre Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area, the premier winter Mallard habitat, which attracts thousands of hunters every winter. Preventing retention of water during the growing season on high-quality bottomland hardwood trees will preserve this world-class wildlife habitat.

To distribute the Arkansas River water to farms, 105 miles of canal are being built. One hundred and sixteen miles of existing bayous and ditches will also convey water. The right-of-way for canals and the work on bayous and ditches provide many opportunities to improve wildlife habitat. Canals will be planted in mixtures of native grasses and grasses recommended by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. As many as 56 weirs will be placed in bayous and ditches to create pools for irrigation pumping. Since these watercourses are historically dry in the summer, the project will enhance aquatic habitat by ensuring year-round water availability. Increased spring and summer flows are estimated to provide up to a 90% increase in Habitat Units.

The Corps of Engineers estimates that introducing Arkansas River water into the bayou systems in the project area will improve water quality. Maintaining a higher water table may also benefit wetlands and streams, which are “losing” water as the alluvial aquifer is depleted.

Water from the project will also be used to flood over 30,000 acres for winter duck habitat.

The original Corps of Engineers plan for the project includes approximately 92 drop structures along existing ditches to reduce sediment inflow from adjacent agricultural lands. With better overall water management individual farmers will be encouraged to reduce runoff.

Preventing sediment buildup in the bayous and ditches will save maintenance costs as well as improving water quality, so nonpoint source pollution management will have multiple benefits.

At the lower end of the system, improvements to bring natural bayou systems back will not only improve habitat, but will lessen the effects of scouring at manmade structures that causes massive sediment runoff to the Arkansas River.

Ongoing development of a Watershed Management Plan for the project area will involve landowners in a planning process to identify methods of addressing water quality issues.

As the project moves toward water delivery, landowners will adopt more on-farm water management, including implementation of nonpoint source practices, that will ensure sustainable commodity agriculture well into the future.

With assistance from the State of Arkansas and federal agencies, the project hopes to deliver water in the next three to five years. Before water delivery, though, much conservation and nonpoint source pollution management work is already being done.