From: Richard Betting

11630 39 Street SE

Valley City, ND 58072; 701-845-4905

Re: Water under the bridge



"What's happening in Benson County?" I asked.

"Oh, not much. The dozers are digging deeper into Earl Huffman's land,
getting down over a person's head, to where it's going to be hard to fill."

"You mean once the outlet project is dead?" I wondered.

"Yes. I talked to one of the engineers, asking about that, what would they
do if a court-or Manitoba or someone-ordered them to stop. And he said they
would just walk away."

"Doesn't that make you mad?"

"It makes Earl sick, I can tell you. He just about can't talk about it. Just
shakes his head."

I was talking to a member of the Peterson Coulee Outlet Association, a
landowner in Benson County, where the State Water Commission's Devils Lake
outlet will be dug. Without Benson County Commission or Benson County Water
Board approval. Without Spirit Lake Nation agreement either, though it's
Tribal land under both West Bay and Round Lake, where the actual outlet
pumping plant will be built.

Go figure. Well, what should be done, one wonders. Here's the status of the
two Devils Lake outlets right now. The Corps' outlet continues to be
planned, though North Dakota, its potential sponsor, has not agreed to
participate, the state's share alone of the $208 million project being about
$75 million.

So the state apparently figures it can dig its own ditch for less, say about
$25 million. That number doesn't include any downstream damages, however.
They say that no additional erosion, flooding or extra water treatment will
result from a state outlet. They claim the fishery will not suffer either.
Nor does the state's outlet include a sand filter, just one of the
components that the Corps' Pelican Lake plan includes in an effort to
moderate the damage Devils Lake water will do on the Sheyenne, the Red and
Lake Winnipeg. A sand filter, of course, will cost as much as North Dakota
plans to spend on its entire ditch and pipeline.

So now the state is paying Park Construction to dig a ditch through land
that it has taken by eminent domain from unwilling farmers who know that the
project will harm them while doing almost nothing to reduce flooding on
Devils Lake.

Almost nothing. A state outlet will take from one to four inches of water
off the lake, says the State Engineer, but with the Sheyenne running at less
that ten cubic feet per second late summers, a realistic amount is closer to
an inch per year. You know, Devils Lake water is of such poor quality that
it must be "diluted" with Sheyenne River water, so when the river runs at
less than 10 cfs, as it did in September and October, they couldn't pump
more than 10 cfs of Round Lake water into it. Like using a straw to drain a
stock tank.

What is People To Save the Sheyenne doing about it? The group has challenged
both State Water Commission and the North Dakota Health Department permits
as being without merit in law-not even allowing Benson County to
participate-or justified by facts. But after a superficial review of
evidence, both agencies continue to support a wasteful and insupportable
plan.

So People To Save the Sheyenne asked its legal counsel to file appeals in
court on both the SWC and NDHD permits. The appeal of the SWC permit was
filed last week, and the next appeal will potentially be filed if the Health
Department upholds its initial permit to drain. One wonders, however, how
the Health Department can grant a permit to drain before the U.S. Secretary
of State's has assurances that such a drain will not harm Canada and,
therefore, not violate the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty.

Manitoba has also threatened to take its case to court, and the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources has asked the Environmental Protection
Agency to intervene.

That's where we are. Waiting for the court's decision. Why, one might ask,
would a state agency spend money and destroy several farmers' fields before
knowing whether or not the project can be finished, and if finished, used.

The workings of North Dakota government are strange indeed.


Signed,


Richard Betting