USACE, USDA-ARS host ribbon cutting for pilot groundwater project

In a press release from the USACE Vicksburg District:

VICKSBURG, Miss. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS); U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Mississippi Valley Division; and USACE Vicksburg District will host a ribbon cutting ceremony for a pilot Groundwater Transfer and Injection Project (GTIP) near Shellmound, Mississippi, June 8.

The ceremony will be held at the project site and include remarks from USACE MVD Commanding General Maj. Gen. Diana Holland; USACE Vicksburg District Commander Col. Robert Hilliard; Archie Tucker, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Southeast Area Director; Daniel Wren, USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Civil Engineer; and Chris Wells, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Executive Director; Governor’s Delta Sustainable Water Resources Task Force.

The project is intended to determine if managed aquifer recharge can be an environmentally and hydrologically sustainable technology for increasing water levels and volume stored in the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) in the Mississippi Delta. The project pumps water approximately two miles from groundwater near the Tallahatchie River to an injection site at the edge of the depression cone in the MRVAA. USDA-ARS plans to operate the wells for six to nine months to collect data during the project’s research phase.

The project was initiated and developed in conjunction with the State of Mississippi Governor’s Delta Sustainable Water Task Force, an interagency collaboration between the USDA-ARS, USACE, MDEQ, U.S. Geological Survey, Yazoo Mississippi Delta Joint Water Management District (YMPD), Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission (MSWCC), Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation (MEFB), USDA – National Resource Conservation Service, Delta Council, and Delta Farmers Advocating Resource Management (FARM) to address the sustainability of pumping withdrawals in the MRVAA.

USACE assisted with the project’s construction, real estate, and environmental design and worked with the USDA-ARS to develop the project’s proof of concept. Funding was provided by USDA-ARS.