Boozman & Crawford announce $7.6 million USDA funding for flood prevention in Arkansas

U.S. Senator John Boozman, R-Rogers, and Congressman Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, members of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees, announced Friday (Oct. 6) that the Departee Creek Watershed Improvement District and Big Slough are recipients of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding to reduce the risk of flooding.

Departee Creek Watershed Improvement District will receive $5.7 million from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to create water control structures and conservation easements to reduce the risk of flooding.

Big Slough will receive a $1.9 million grant from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to reduce floodwater damage and prevent sediment loading in Big Slough Drainage Ditch and its major tributaries.

“Floods put a significant strain on Arkansas’s communities and severely impact agricultural producers in our state,” Boozman said in a statement. “I am pleased to support these investments which will improve water infrastructure control measures to ease the threat of flooding to Arkansas’s rich farmland.”

“Our abundant water resources can often be a real challenge for the 1st District,” Crawford said in a statement. “From meetings with the producers to conservation districts to local municipalities, for years my office has been working hard on the Departee Creek project in particular. It’s a relief to know that these projects will finally receive the critical investments that the communities need to properly manage their flood risk.”