Arkansas Educational Telecommunication Network

In 1996 Union County was among five South Arkansas counties designated the state's first critical groundwater area by the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. To deal with the problem, county stakeholders organized and drafted legislation that would authorize the state’s first water conservation board. By 1999 the state legislature passed Act 1050 which not only allowed for the formation of the board, but authorized a fee on Sparta water users. Then in February of 2002 Union County voters approved a temporary sales tax, which combined with the fee paid for the Ouachita Ouachita River Alternative Water Supply Project which supplies water to the areas three industrial users, Lion Oil, El Dorado Chemical and Chemtura Central Plant. Together, they have shifted over four million gallons a day of withdrawals from the Sparta aquifer to the Ouachita River. This effort is recognized as a prime factor in the recent recovery of the aquifer.