Earmarks ban may shutter Arkansas irrigation work

— Irrigation projects at Grand Prairie and Bayou Meto are at risk of losing funding because of the congressional ban on earmarks.

Together the projects would cost about $1 billion to complete, and officials are to meet on Tuesday to discuss the prospects for continuing work on the projects.

The projects are necessary because of diminishing underground aquifers that farmers have tapped for decades to water their fields.

The Southwest Times Record reports that each project was arranged so that 65 percent would be paid for by the federal government, with 35 percent covered by state and local sources. Bonds issued to pay for part of the work would be repaid by selling water to growers.

The Corps of Engineers is trying to generate other funding for the projects.

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