News Release US Army Corps of Engineers, Office of the Chief of Engineers
Release No. PA-03-04
Contact: Carol Sanders - 202-761-4715 , Carol.A.Sanders@usace.army.mil
Mark Davidson - 51-290-5201, Mark.D.Davidson@mvp02.usace.army.mil
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Army's Chief of Engineers, Lieutenant General Robert B. Flowers, has identified a constructed outlet at Pelican Lake as the preferred alternative to alleviate flood damage at Devils Lake in North Dakota if the lake continues to rise. The final Environmental Impact Statement will be released soon for public review. The Chief will use all information gathered during that review in making his final recommendation to Congress.
Devils Lake is an inland lake with no natural outlet. The area surrounding the lake has experienced unusually wet weather that has caused the lake to rise 25 feet in recent years. This has led to the destruction or relocation of more than 500 homes and the expenditure of more than $350 million in federal funds to control flood damages.
In 1997, Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers to examine the feasibility of an emergency outlet and to prepare an environmental impact statement. The Corps has examined several options, including raising roads and levees, upper basin storage and building an outlet at one of several locations. In the Omnibus Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2003 just signed by the President, the Congress directs the Corps to construct an emergency outlet from Devils Lake to the Sheyenne River, subject to several conditions. One requirement is to have assurances from the Secretary of State that the project will not violate the Boundary Waters Treaty.
The Army Corps of Engineers has examined the Pelican Lake outlet alternative in detail in an integrated planning report and final environmental impact statement that the Corps will release for public review in the near future.
“I have considered the flood damages associated with the continuing rise in lake levels together with the social, economic and environmental consequences that would occur if the lake overflowed into the Stump Lakes and then into the Sheyenne River,” Lt. Gen. Flowers said. “These impacts, in my professional engineering opinion, warrant selecting an outlet at the Pelican Lake site as the most practical way to balance the social, economic and environmental needs of the region. We can moderate the impacts of an overflow in a controlled manner with an outlet.”
The Corps has determined that, if the wet weather continues, another 163,000 acres could be flooded and additional damages in excess of $900 million could occur. Under such conditions, the lake would eventually overflow into the Stump Lakes and then the Sheyenne River. Then, besides raising salinity levels in the river, this would cause the river to flood, the groundwater to rise and erosion to increase as well as the loss of aquatic and riparian habitat.
The Corps has determined that the best location for an outlet would be at the Pelican Lake with the flow going to the Sheyenne River. This water then flows into the Red River of the North forming the boundary between North Dakota and Minnesota before flowing into Canada. The estimated cost of the outlet is $186.5 million.
Following public review of the final environmental impact statement, Lt. Gen. Flowers will recommend a course of action. If he chooses the Pelican Lake outlet plan after considering the public comments, other federal and state agencies would have to take additional actions before the outlet could be constructed and operated. Those actions include assurances provided by the Secretary of State, water quality certification by the state of North Dakota, and a Department of Interior determination regarding compatibility of the outlet with Lake Alice National Wildlife Refuge.
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Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, ND
Posted on Wed, Feb. 26, 2003
DEVILS LAKE: Outlet approved
Corps approves Devils Lake outlet, but
boosts projected cost
By Jack Sullivan
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed on Tuesday
to build a channel to draw down North Dakota's flooded Devils
Lake, but said the project will cost at least $50 million more
than planned to address environmental concerns.
Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers, commander of the corps, told North
Dakota's congressional delegation that the agency will formally
announce its decision in a final environmental report on
Wednesday.
The project had been estimated to cost $97 million. Flowers told
the delegation it will now cost between $150 million and $180
million, said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
"There is some sticker shock associated with that
cost," said Conrad, D-N.D.
He and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Flowers told the
delegation that money for the project would be included in the
corps' future budget requests. But the new size of the project
raises the likelihood of a congressional budget skirmish over it.
"The cost is a serious concern, especially given the fact
the (Bush) administration has been opposed to spending half as
much," Conrad said.
Dorgan said the money would likely not be budgeted by Congress
any sooner than next year.
He questioned the higher cost, saying he wants the corps to
better explain how it was reached. Tuesday's decision "is a
step forward with some difficulties attached with it,"
Dorgan said.
Devils Lake sits in a closed basin, meaning it has no natural
outlet. Wet conditions over much of the 1990s caused the lake to
rise more than 20 feet and almost triple in area.
The resulting flood has swallowed thousands of acres of farmland
and forced the government to spend an estimated $350 million to
raise roads and move or protect homes including almost all in the
small town of Church's Ferry.
The corps decision to build the outlet is based on its finding
that the higher cost is justified by the amount of damage it
could prevent if the lake rose more, said Rep. Earl Pomeroy,
D-N.D.
Conrad and Dorgan said the project will now include a sand filter
to remove dissolved solids and biological material from the lake
water before it is released into the Sheyenne River.
The Sheyenne empties into the Red River, which forms most of the
border between Minnesota and North Dakota and runs north into
Canada.
Minnesota and Canadian officials have opposed the project because
they fear the lake water would dirty the rivers and hurt fish.
State crews are working now on a different outlet that was
launched when officials in Bismarck decided not to wait for the
corps' final decision on the federal project.
Both outlets would move water into the Sheyenne. Some residents
along the route of the state outlet and downstream on the
Sheyenne have said they will go to court to stop construction.
The group, called People to Save the Sheyenne, has opposed the
state outlet in part because its members don't think its
environmental effects were properly studied, said Milt Sauer, the
group's treasurer.
Sauer said the group will review the corps plans before deciding
how to respond.
"Personally, if there would have to be an outlet, I would
prefer the federal over the state," said Sauer, who lives
along the Sheyenne near Valley City, N.D.
Devils Lake now stands just under 1,447 feet above sea level. It
would spill into the Sheyenne on its own at 1,459 feet, a level
the lake could reach in 2015 if the unusual conditions of the
1990s continued, the corps said last year.
In last year's report, which was a draft of the document expected
Wednesday, the corps said Sheyenne water quality would be
affected by either outlet water or natural spillover.
Pomeroy said the corps sees the outlet as a "fail-safe
mechanism" that would allow the those effects to be
controlled.
On the Net: • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul
District: http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/
• North Dakota State Water Commission, Devils Lake project: http://www.swc.state.nd.us/projects/devilslake.html
• People to Save the Sheyenne: http://www.savethesheyenne.org
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