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Field Frustration: Farming Outlook Looks Grim for Pembina County Farmers

Posted on: Thursday, 1 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Ryan Bakken, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.

May 27--PEMBINA, N.D. - The water left his land almost two weeks ago. But, standing atop the Manitoba road/dike that runs along the U.S. border, Owen Symington shows further proof of the damage done.

North of where he's standing, the fields are mostly green. To the south, they're black and wet.

"Look what they're doing to us," he said, sweeping his arm.

The dirt barrier, which runs 26 miles, kept overland flooding out of Manitoba while keeping it on 130 square miles of Pembina County farmland for up to five weeks.

"We're at the bottom of the drain here," said Symington, who farms 2,200 acres in the county. "When Gov. (John) Hoeven came to visit and we were under six feet of water on our land, they were seeding on the other side and kicking up dust."

Symington said he is three to four weeks behind in planting. He finished wheat planting this week, a task often completed in April.

Before he could plant, he had sticks to pick, current-created holes to fill, two-foot-high silt piles to avoid and culverts to unplug. He had to change his crop rotation from his preferences.

"If you can't plant land until June 1, sugar beets and canola are out, and you lose 20 percent of your yield potential on wheat," Symington said. "This situation devalues our land because it limits what you can plant."

Because he never knows how early his land can be planted the next spring, he can't spread fertilizer in the fall. "So, we're always scrambling," he said.

The overland flooding in the county was dramatic this year. It covered 80,000 acres of prime farmland, threatened the town of Neche, caused an estimated $635,000 in infrastructure damage and prompted 42 applications for emergency operating loans from the Farm Service Agency, triple the usual number.

Flooding has been common in recent years. In 2005, Symington's land received 20 inches of rain from May 5 to July 4 and he would categorize his losses only as "in the thousands of dollars."

He concedes his land would get water without the dike/road, but not to the degree that it does. It's especially grating to him that much of that water originates in Canada. He shows a spot on the barrier where there are four culverts, two of which were plugged during the high water.

"They say this is a road," he said. "Well, the next culvert to the west is seven miles from here. You don't build a road with seven miles between culverts."

The dike/road has been an issue since the mid-1960s. The problem grew when the barrier grew bigger, and the natural drainage through the channel of the Aux Marais River was closed. According to a 1902 treaty between the United States and Canada, it's unlawful to block a physical channel.

That treaty is the basis of Pembina County's lawsuit filed in Canadian federal court. Diplomacy and negotiations haven't worked, said Neil Fleming, an attorney from Cavalier, N.D., who represents the flooded farmers. The earliest the case can be heard is January.

"To say the least, this is not neighborly of them," Symington said.

Fifteen miles to the west, Neche farmers agree that the Canadian dike exacerbates the flooding. But they're skeptical about a positive outcome in a Canadian court.

"A Canadian court and a Canadian judge?" Neche grower Wayne Newell said. "What are the chances of that working out for us?"

Neche farmers say another culprit is that they were forced by District Court action three years ago to take down their farm dikes.

The dikes, which were linked together for a 16-mile stretch, were built without proper permits. Pembina area farmers sued because they said the farm dikes increased flooding in their area. The lawsuit led to friction among members of the communities, which share a school. Because of that friction, several growers didn't want to be interviewed.

"If someone wants to dike their town or dike their house, that's fine," Symington said. "But you don't build dikes to protect your farmland and have the water come up higher on my land. That's wrong."

But Neche area growers such as Newell and Frank Hughes say some variety of farm dikes are needed to keep the Pembina River in its channel. Unlike the Red River Basin, where the land drains toward the river, much of the land here drains away from the river.

"At least having a channel will control it," Newell said. "We're late getting onto the land, but it's the erosion that's really hurting us."

The Pembina County Water Resource Board and North Dakota Water Commission have promised that they will consider some level of setback dikes to control the water. But the cost is a concern for farmers, who already have paid to put up dikes and tear them down.

Plus, the water boards don't want to address the issue until the Canadian lawsuit is decided.

"We have more lawsuits than action," Newell said. Newell has one word - "expensive" - to describe this spring's high-current flooding, which ripped ditches and ravines in his fields and holes in his road roads and left silt deposits up to two feet deep. Some land can't be planted this year.

"There is permanent damage to the land," he said. "In some places, we have lost a foot of good topsoil, which is hard to replace.

"Getting the land ready has taken additional time and expense. And the flood has left us a month behind in yield potential. It all adds up."

What made this worse was that northern Pembina County farmers had a poor crop in 2004 and a disastrous crop in 2005, both because of heavy rains and flooded fields. From April 2004 until July 2005, Hughes' meticulous records showed 50 inches of rainfall.

"My worst crop in my 45 years of farming was last year," the 69-year-old Hughes said.

Hughes has the same problems in getting in a crop as the others - the mud, the gouges in his land, the silt, the trees that need to be dragged off fields. Because of scrambled rotations and wet fields last fall, he'll need heavy spraying for weeds. It's too wet to ground spray and the spray pilots are backed up with the heavy demand.

"Losing those dikes caused all this," he said.

But the situation is better than he imagined a month ago because no rain fell for three weeks until a few days ago.

"Being spared the rain has given us a chance," he said. "If we get some breaks, we can get a crop. Some prices are good.

"It will be a short crop. It won't make up for last year. But we should survive unless something else happens."

Faced with dealing with at least one more spring flood because of the timetable for the Canadian suit, Hughes said he might put up a dike on his land. All 1,250 of his acres are within one mile of the river.

"The Canadians aren't going to take that dike down," Hughes said. "They're just playing with us.

"I can't wait to protect my land. Maybe I'll do it and see what happens to me. I have nothing to lose."

Hughes looks out across the Pembina River at the site of his first farmstead. Between the wider channel that has been cut and erosion from the flowing water, it's an estimated 600 feet from bank to bank.

"I used to go across that skinny river by walking across a fallen log back then," he said. "It would take a heck of a big log to get across it now."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.

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Source: Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, N.D.)

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