• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Devils Lake Deal Reached Between North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba

Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Aug. 6--North Dakota, Manitoba and Minnesota reached an "agreed approach" late Friday for dealing with the Devils Lake outlet, a giant leap in a multiple-year controversy that cast a shadow of international controversy on the Lake Region's costly slow-motion flood disaster.

The accord came as a small amount of Devils Lake water reached the Sheyenne River on Friday, a result of outlet pump testing this week.

"For the first time in 12 years, we're taking water out of Devils Lake and helping with the terrible flooding problem we have," Gov. John Hoeven said in a phone interview from Bismarck late Friday.

One of the 14-mile outlet channel's four pumps malfunctioned, but state Water Commission engineer Bruce Engelhardt said Friday the glitch would not delay water diversions next week into the Sheyenne River, a tributary of the north-flowing Red River that ultimately takes its water into Canada and Manitoba's Lake Winnipeg, a vacation resort haven and commercial fishery.

The outlet, consisting of pipes, pumping stations and open ditches, is intended to help stabilize flooding on the swollen Devils Lake, which has risen more than 26 feet since 1993. The rising water has tripled the lake's size and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and repairs to private and public property.

It has flooded thousands of acres of farm and pastureland, and affected hundreds of homes.

The two states and province, along with the United States and Canada, outlined the accord in a joint statement late Friday.

The agreement provides for a better, more costly sand filter system, provided continued testing proved a need. But it would be an add-on that the United States and Canadian governments -- and not North Dakota -- would pay for, Hoeven said.

"That means not only the cost to install it, but also to operate it," Hoeven said. "But they're going to do ongoing testing." That additional filter project could cost $18 million to build, and perhaps $2 million in annual operating costs, the governor said.

"This is positive," Manitoba Premier Gary Doer said Friday night at the end of months of intense talks involving North Dakota and key White House environmental officials. "We are pleased the two countries could come to an agreement to build an advanced filtration system that will be based on the results of the scientific testing that is now under way."

The agreement ends the threat of an International Joint Commission review, which the Canadians and Minnesotans had sought from the United States. It allows North Dakota to run the outlet, while further testing continues.

North Dakota also affirms it has no plans to build an inlet from the Missouri River basin to Devils Lake -- a major concern of the Canadians and Minnesotans. North Dakota's long-term water plan seeks to bring Missouri River water into the Red River Valley to help offset potential water shortages, but more recent plans to date call for a pipeline, not an inlet into Devils Lake.

"The (U.S.) State Department calls it a shared approach,'" Hoeven said.

This just lays out the framework for that approach.

Under the agreement, which Hoeven said was not legally binding:

--The outlet will have an "intermediate" rock and gravel filter, finished this week. It's 18 feet thick, enough to block the release of any Devils Lake "macroscopic aquatic nuisance species" -- fish, eggs and some plants -- from going into the Sheyenne River. Critics say it is inadequate to prevent unwanted biota transfers.

--The two nations will cooperate in the design and construction of a more advanced filtration and/or disinfection system for the Devils Lake outlet, "taking into account the results of ongoing monitoring and risk assessment," the statement read.

--The International Red River Board of the International Joint Commission will joint all parties in developing and implementing a "shared risk management strategy" for the greater Red River Basin. That plan would include an early detection monitoring system for water quality and aquatic nuisance species throughout the basin, not just at Devils Lake and the Sheyenne and Red rivers.

--Immediate measures will be taken, "should any be identified," to prevent spread of "any aquatic nuisance species that pose a significant risk to the basin."

--Manitoba will complete its tasks to mitigate impacts on the North Dakota side of a border dike near Pembina, N.D., no later than Aug. 31. Manitoba officials say the dike is actually a road, but North Dakota farmers on its south side say the "road" is responsible for pushing floodwaters onto their land.

The article includes material from The Associated Press and the Winnipeg Free Press.

-----

To see more of the Grand Forks Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.grandforks.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Grand Forks Herald, N.D.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

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

More News in this Category