BISMARCK, N.D.
North Dakota's Water Commission agreed Friday to spend $19 million in a push to complete a Devils Lake outlet next year, with hopes of pumping water from the lake in the spring of 2005.
The commission, which includes Gov. John Hoeven and Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson, voted Friday to endorse the expenditure for the outlet, which will divert water from west Devils Lake to the Sheyenne River.
About $9 million has already been approved for outlet work. The new authorization bumps the total expense so far to $28 million.
Previous estimates have pegged the cost at $25 million, but permit requirements and some inflationary costs have raised the sum, said Dale Frink, the Water Commission's top engineer.
Designers hope the outlet will move as much as 4 inches of water annually from the lake, which now stands at 1,446.3 feet above sea level. It will include two pumping stations, 3.3 miles of pipeline and 9.4 miles of open channel.
Digging for a portion of the channel ended Nov. 4, when frost halted the project after two weeks of work.
"It's a major effort," said Todd Sando, an assistant state engineer. "It's going to take all summer, and we'll have a lot of construction people out there working on it."
Project planners believe the outlet can be ready for operation in the spring of 2005, Sando said. Once the lake drops to 1,445 feet, use of the outlet will cease, he said.
Foes of the outlet have challenged the project in court. A lawsuit filed by an opposition group, called People to Save the Sheyenne, argues the Water Commission did not obtain required permission for the project from Benson County's commission or water resource board.
Opponents say the outlet represents an enormous expenditure for little benefit, and that Devils Lake water could cause pollution, flooding and river bank erosion downstream.
Hoeven said lawsuits, or the threat of them, should not be allowed to stop the project unless a court orders a halt.
"This is a problem that's been building over a decade now, and we need to step up and address it," Hoeven said. "You can't just wait until there's no possibility of any litigation. That would never occur. That's really a decision to do nothing, and we need to act."
Devils Lake has risen about 24 feet since 1993, flooding more than 120,000 acres. More than $400 million in state and federal money has been spent battling the flood, including buyouts of homes, bridge and dike construction, and raising the level of area roads.