Arkansas Governor Sanders, ANRC Announce an Additional $80 Million for Arkansas Water Project

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – On Wednesday, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced an additional $83,443,495 in financial assistance for nine water and wastewater projects. The projects serve more than 271,786 Arkansans. The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission approved this funding on September 18, 2024.

“My administration is working hard to improve Arkansas’ water systems, and the additional $80 million in funding we’re announcing today will help communities around the state,” said Governor Sanders. “It is critical Arkansans have access to safe drinking water.”

“While we often take it for granted, adequate water and wastewater infrastructure is critical to the quality of life of every Arkansan and the sustainability of communities and industries throughout the state. Since day one of her administration, water has been a top priority for Governor Sanders and we are thankful for her continued leadership that will ensure that our state maintains our attractive high quality of life and is well positioned in the future,” said Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward.

The projects receiving funding are below:

• Arkansas Environmental Training Academy in Camden is receiving a $232,840 grant from the Clean Water Revolving Fund for wastewater operator training.

• Central Arkansas Water in Pulaski County is receiving an $80,000,000 loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. The project serves a current customer base of 156,000. This is an increase in funding to the existing Jack H. Wilson Treatment Plant improvement project.  

• Magazine in Logan County is receiving a $2,046,080 loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. The project serves a current customer base of 391. This is an increase in funding for the existing wastewater collection and treatment rehabilitation project.

• Mountain Top Suburban Improvement District No. 66 in Garland County is receiving a $570,000 loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. The project serves a current customer base of 67. This is an increase in funding for the existing wastewater treatment plant project.

• Newton County on behalf of Compton Water Association is receiving an $83,070 loan from the Water Development Fund to rehabilitate their 100,000-gallon standpipe. The project serves a current customer base of 348.

• Newton County on behalf of Nail-Swain Water Association is receiving two $74,160 loans totaling $148,320 from the Water Development Funds to rehabilitate two water tanks. The project serves a current customer base of 379. 

• Tri-County Regional Water Distribution District in Pope County is receiving a $363,185 loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. The project serves a current customer base of 8,101. This is an increase in funding for the existing project for wastewater collection and treatment rehabilitation.

Two entities received approval for a scope modification to their existing projects without any changes to the funding:

• Helena-West Helena, Phillips County, previously received an $11,000,000 loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund in February 2024. The project serves a current customer base of 5,500. 

• Lonoke White Public Water Authority in Cleburne County previously received a $12,970,441 loan from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund in January of 2023. The project serves a current customer base of 101,000. 

In August, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the first phase of the Arkansas Water Plan has been completed by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Along with state partners, Governor Sanders has provided over $2.5 billion for water development projects in all 75 counties using state and federal funds.

Arkansas Water Plan Update Moves Forward After First Phase Completion

Cossatot River (Robert Thigpen-Flickr)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark — The Arkansas Department of Agriculture, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), has completed the first phase of the Arkansas Water Plan (AWP) update as directed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Executive Order 23-27. Completion of Phase I marks a significant milestone in the preparation and development of a comprehensive program for the orderly development and management of the state’s water and related land resources that will benefit all Arkansans.  
 
“Every Arkansan deserves access to safe, reliable drinking water. My administration’s ongoing review and update of our Arkansas Water Plan is key to that goal,” said Governor Sanders. “Completion of Phase I of our plan review is an important milestone and I look forward to moving on quickly to Phase II while we continue making needed investments statewide.”
 
“Governor Sanders has been the most proactive Governor in the country in addressing water issues,” said Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward. “From signing Executive Order 23-27 that initiated an update to the Arkansas Water Plan, to initiating a statewide levee inventory and analysis to prepare for and mitigate future flooding events, to addressing critical groundwater issues for our state’s agriculture industry and administering over $2.5 billion in water development projects in all 75 counties across the state.  There is no Governor that has devoted more time and effort to address water issues and ensure that Arkansas is set up for success for many years to come.” 
 
Phase I required a comprehensive review of the existing Arkansas Water Plan to determine areas of significant change to be reevaluated or updated. Completion of Phase I included a total of seven stakeholder meetings that were held across the state from March to May 2024. Additionally, citizens were encouraged to provide feedback through a stakeholder survey. The Department used this data to better understand the state’s current water needs and to develop the goals for the Arkansas Water Plan update. 
 
Completion of Phase I identified the following six goals for the Arkansas Water Plan Update:

• Provide drinking water that supports public health and well-being.

• Provide water that supports environmental and economic benefits to the state and supports interstate agreements.

• Use the best available science, data, tools, practices, and technologies to support water resource planning and management for current and future needs.

• Maintain and improve water supply, wastewater, stormwater, and flood control infrastructure and plan for future infrastructure needs.

• Maintain, protect, and improve water quality to support designated uses of waterbodies.

• Reduce the impacts of future flooding events on people, property, infrastructure, industry, agriculture, and the environment.

 The update to the Arkansas Water Plan is being completed in two phases. Phase II is scheduled to begin before the end of the 2024 calendar year.

Liquid-state poultry litter digester prototype makes struvite, biogas and clean water

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers have assembled a novel prototype system that could help alleviate the issue of excess nutrient runoff in watersheds from poultry litter.

ONE-OF-A-KIND — Jun Zhu, professor of biological and agricultural engineering, stands before a prototype of the liquid-state poultry litter digester designed to recycle water used in creating struvite from poultry litter. The system also captures biogas from liquid-state anaerobic digestion of poultry litter. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Fred Miller)

The system turns chicken litter into a more biologically stable fertilizer called struvite, captures methane and recycles most of the water it uses. It is the first system of its kind in the United States, according to Jun Zhu, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Sustainability.

“Over the years, techniques to treat poultry litter have been researched extensively, including composting, direct combustion, pelletization, and anaerobic digestion,” said Zhu professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “However, none of these technologies are found to be economically or environmentally friendly in the real world.”

Anaerobic digestion, decomposition of solids by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen, is the best of the current techniques, Zhu said. But that is a process that works best with liquids, and poultry litter has a very low moisture content. Zhu and his team developed a system that recycles the water needed for anaerobic digestion while creating struvite from the excess nutrients in chicken litter.

In December, two other land-grant university partners — the University of Idaho and Virginia Tech — built the three-piece system at the experiment station. The project is partly funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s Foundational and Applied Science Program.

In addition to turning chicken litter into a more biologically stable product, the system can help support a poultry farmer’s energy demands by capturing methane from anaerobic digestion. Zhu said the methane can be used as a heating and cooking fuel.

Struvite is considered an eco-friendly fertilizer because only a small percentage is water soluble, and struvite releases its nutrients slowly. A two-year experiment station field study in east Arkansas by Kris Brye, University Professor of applied soil physics and pedology, showed struvite performed just as well, and in some cases better, as mined phosphate on corn, soybeans and rice. Mined phosphate is a finite resource prone to price fluctuations.

Another benefit of anaerobic digestion on poultry litter, Zhu explains, is that it removes nuisance odors. Poultry production in Arkansas generates about 1.5 million tons of manure every year. The fast growth of the poultry industry in northwest Arkansas resulted in a significant increase in litter production, which led to local disposal issues. Poultry litter contains nutrients from chicken feces and bedding material such as straw, sawdust, wood shavings, shredded paper, and peanut or rice hulls.

How it works

THREE PHASE — Yuanhang Zhan explains the three phases of the liquid-state poultry litter digester designed to reduce the liquid content to a slow-release fertilizer called struvite. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Fred Miller)

Yuanhang Zhan, a Ph.D. candidate in Zhu's lab, has optimized the carbon-nitrogen ratios for chicken litter and wheat straw in the poultry litter digestion phase to produce an expected amount of methane. Researchers chose wheat straw because of its common use as a winter crop in Arkansas.

After capturing the biogas from the digestion chamber, the system’s second phase is to use a lightly electrically charged magnesium plate in an electrolytic reactor to separate nutrients from the liquid and drop into a settling tank as struvite. Depending on the amount of phosphate and ammonium in the 1-liter mixture, about 1 gram of magnesium ammonium phosphate struvite precipitates and then is dried to form a powder.

Zhu said the electrolytic reactor was built by collaborates at the University of Idaho led by Sarah Wu to prevent water electrolysis, so no hydrogen gas is produced.

With the struvite in the settling tank, the remaining effluent is cleaned by a final forward osmosis system built by collaborators at Virginia Tech, led by Zhiwu Wang.

Forward osmosis is a water separation process that uses a semipermeable membrane and the natural energy of osmotic pressure to separate water from solids in the solution. Peristaltic pumps transfer the clean water back into the digester designed and built at the experiment station.

While most of the nutrients are precipitated by the electrolytic reactor, and between 80 and 90 percent of the water comes out clear, there is a small amount of “rejected” water created that also contains a small amount of nutrients. Zhu said his collaborators at Virginia Tech have mentioned the rejected water could be used as a road treatment for ice and snow prevention in the wintertime.

Zhu expects an upscaled system to be used at an experiment station broiler house for further tests.

OPERATION — Yiting Xiao demonstrates the operation of the liquid-state poultry litter digester. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Fred Miller)

Other collaborators on the liquid-state poultry digester have included Amanda Ashworth with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and the following University of Arkansas faculty: the late Sammy Sadaka, associate professor and extension engineer; Thomas Costello, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering; Wen Zhang, associate professor of civil engineering; and Mike Popp, professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness. Yiting Xiao, a Ph.D. student in Zhu’s lab, has also been involved with the project.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.