Meet The Speaker: Dennis K. Carman

We are excited to introduce Dennis K. Carman as one of our speakers for the 2026 Arkansas Soil and Water Education Conference and Irrigation EXPO.

He retired from NRCS in 2007 and is currently the Chief Engineer and Director for the White River Irrigation District charged with delivering Affordable Surface Water to the Grand Prairie Region.

Dennis is lifetime member of the American Society of Biological and Agriculture Engineers. He gained experience with NRCS in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Indiana before coming to Arkansas where he focused on project development, irrigation, and technology development for flow and water measurement methods for soil and water management.

In the late 90’s, Dennis was the original EQIP program manager in Arkansas and led the national effort to include irrigation and water management in the initial NRCS Conservation Security Program. Dennis and his staff developed the project concepts combining on-farm conservation, tailwater recovery, and use of excess River water that are the core of the Grand Prairie and Bayou Meto projects.

Dennis was the Co-Author that established the Delta Water Management Research Unit, he wrote the grant in 2012 for Tyronza River that brought more than $7 million in EQIP funding, and was the boots on the ground that sold the first rice carbon credits to Microsoft. He is a Registered Professional Engineer with about 40 years of experience in irrigation and all agricultural water related fields, especially in Arkansas.

Come see his presentation, Surface Water Diversion Projects—History and Status in Arkansas, at the Arkansas Soil and Water Education Conference and Irrigation EXPO at the Arkansas State University Student Union on January 14.