State to auction Flint River area irrigation plan again

ATLANTA - The Environmental Protection Division has declared that a severe drought continues in the Flint River basin of southwest Georgia, setting the stage for a second year of paying farmers not to irrigate their crops. <br> <br> Last year, during the first summer of the Flint River Drought Protection Act, the EPD saved about 130 million gallons a day by paying $4.5 million to idle some irrigation systems. <br> <br> The act provides that the state compensate farmers who voluntarily stop irrigating their crops with surface water such as the river or creeks during a severe drought year. <br> <br> Taking farm acreage out of irrigation helps ensure the health of the Flint River, which flows from Clayton County south of Atlanta until it merges with the Chattahoochee River at Lake Seminole along the Florida line. <br> <br> EPD Director Harold Reheis declared the drought conditions Friday based on stream flows measuring at or below 10-year drought levels. Groundwater levels in southwest Georgia also are equal to or below levels of a year ago. <br> <br> The state has set aside $10 million from tobacco settlement money to fund the program for farmers who hold state permits for surface-water irrigation. <br> <br> The state will send eligible farmers information packages which they must sign and return by March 15. Farmers are asked to submit a sealed bid of up to $150 per acre of eligible irrigated land. The state will accept bids beginning with the lowest until an adequate amount of land has been taken out of irrigation during this year&#39;s growing season. <br> <br> Farmers must prove the acreage submitted was irrigated in the past three years and would be irrigated again this year under normal conditions. <br> <br> Rob McDowell, program manager, said he hopes the farmers all don&#39;t bid the maximum $150 this year. <br> <br> ``If they all come in at $150 an acre, we are going to have to randomly eliminate,&#39;&#39; he told The Ledger-Enquirer newspaper of Columbus. ``If they go lower, they stand a much better chance.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Almost 700 of the Flint basin&#39;s 1,450 surface water users with 119,526 acres of irrigated farmland are eligible to participate this year. <br> <br> About 337 farmers participated in auctions last year. The state accepted 209 bids averaging $135 an acre. More than 33,000 acres of basin farmland was removed from irrigation.

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