Arkansas Critical Groundwater Areas — Awareness Designation & Conservation Incentives (AR)
Tracked preemption from the Arkansas overlay bundle.
Overview
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Effective
1991-07-12
Sunset
—
Authority
state
Scope
state:AR
Other Arkansas preemptions
Arkansas Tax Increment Finance — Redevelopment District AuthorityArkansas Private Wetlands and Riparian Zone ConservationArkansas Brownfield Voluntary Cleanup Program — DEQ Oversight & Liability LimitsFort Chaffee / Ebbing AFRC / Fort Smith ANGB — Military Compatible Use ZonesArkansas Voluntary Agricultural District — Farmland Preservation & Nuisance DefenseBuffalo National River — Federal Adjacency & Viewshed (Newton, Searcy, Marion, Baxter Counties)McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System — Federal Navigation & Floodway CorridorArkansas Floodplain Management Act — NFIP-Aligned Local Mandate
Trigger predicate
When this evaluates true for a parcel, the law's preempted fields take precedence over base zoning.
parcel.in_critical_groundwater_area == TruePreempted fields
2 fields on the base district schema are rewritten when the trigger fires.
| Field | Op | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
land_development.high_water_use_disclosure_required | require | True | Designation triggers awareness/disclosure rather than hard regulatory cap — large-volume groundwater users encouraged to participate in conservation reporting |
base_districts[*].water_efficient_landscape_required | add | encouraged_not_mandated | Local jurisdictions may adopt complementary water-efficient design standards consistent with critical-area designation |
Citation
Authority source
Ark. Code Ann. §§15-22-901 et seq. (Groundwater Protection and Management Act; Act 154 of 1991); administered by Ark. Dept. of Agriculture, Natural Resources Division
§ §§15-22-901 et seq.
Research notes
Critical Groundwater Area designation is a **non-regulatory** awareness program — does NOT cap permitted withdrawals or impose by-right development restrictions. Designated areas (per 2024 update) include the Alluvial and Sparta aquifers of eastern Arkansas (Grand Prairie / Mississippi Alluvial Plain), driven by irrigation-volume drawdowns and the unsustainable cone-of-depression in the Sparta aquifer south of I-40. The hard-regulatory companion is the Conservation Reserve Program (federal) and the Arkansas water-use registration system (§15-22-302). Cities in CGAs (Stuttgart, Brinkley, Forrest City, Pine Bluff, Helena-West Helena, Dumas, McGehee) may impose complementary irrigation/landscape standards but cannot rely on §15-22-901 as preempting power on water-intensive uses.