Governor Objects to River Water Diversion
By Bill Graham, The Kansas City Star, Mo.
Jan. 27–Missouri officials are concerned about a proposal that could divert water from the Missouri River Valley into North Dakota and further strain local utilities.
Gov. Matt Blunt is asking state agencies to take legal steps against the proposed $660 million water diversion into the Red River basin that flows toward Hudson Bay.
Blunt indicated Kansas City area electric and water utilities already have needed to lower intake pipes in the river because of low water flows.
An eight-year drought in the river’s upper basin has prompted minimal water releases from upstream reservoirs.
A diversion would further reduce the water supply and set a precedent that could allow more diversions, said Mike Wells, deputy director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
“Once that water goes out of the basin, it’s not going to be flowing past Kansas City or Jefferson City,” Wells said.
Blunt has asked natural resources director Doyle Childers and Attorney General Jay Nixon to fight the Red River Water Supply Project. What steps will be taken are still being decided, Wells said.
Canadian provinces bordering the Red River also oppose the project. Canadian officials fear harmful invasive species and fish diseases could be transported to Hudson Bay.
But eastern North Dakota has long sought more water for irrigation and drinking.
The Bureau of Reclamation recently completed an environmental impact statement that says the diversion is the most reliable and cost-effective way to provide water during a drought to Fargo and Grand Rapids, N.D., and three cities in Minnesota.
Federal water projects in the arid West are managed by the bureau, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
A ruling on the Red River Water Supply Project is expected this year from Interior Department officials, Wells said.
Efforts to divert Missouri River water to the Red River basin date to the 1950s and the Garrison Diversion, which was partly built but not completed.
The current proposal is to pump up to 122 cubic feet of water per second from Lake Sakakawea on the Missouri River in a pipe to the Red River basin, said Signe Snortland, project team leader for the Bureau of Reclamation.
By comparison, the Missouri River flow past Kansas City on Wednesday was 31,000 cubic feet per second.
The diverted water would be treated to drinking water quality to alleviate disease and invasive species, Snortland said. Then the water would be piped to a reservoir in the Sheyenne River basin, which feeds the Red River.
Water would be pumped from the Missouri only during drought, she said. The size of the overland pipe would only be big enough to pump 122 cubic feet per second. Federal tax dollars and loans would pay for the bulk of the project.
Other alternatives were studied, Snortland said, but none offered as reliable a water supply as the Missouri River.
No adverse affects for downstream water users are predicted, she said, because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers controls water levels through reservoir releases.
But Missouri officials doubt that conclusion, Wells said.
They’ve battled upstream states over corps water policy since the current drought caused lower river levels and a shorter navigation season.
Officials said they don’t want a precedent set that could lead to larger diversions in the future.
“The basin’s water is already depleted with the drought we’re in,” he said.
To reach Bill Graham, call 816-234-5906 or send e-mail to bgraham@kcstar.com.
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