North Dakota Starts
Draining Lake into Canada
August 16, 2005 — By Roberta Rampton, Reuters
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Despite Canadian
fears of contamination, North Dakota began pumping water Monday from its
Devils Lake floodlands into a system that leads eventually into a
commercial fishery north of the U.S. border.
The U.S. diversion plan has been a diplomatic sore point because of
Canadian concerns the water could pollute Manitoba's Lake Winnipeg, the
world's 10th largest freshwater lake and home to a C$25 million ($21
million) fishery.
North Dakota says the water from Devils Lake, which has swallowed up
90,000 acres of land over 12 years of higher than normal precipitation,
is safe. But Canada fears the land-locked lake contains high
concentrations of salts and other pollutants along with foreign fish and
organisms.
The system diverts water through a canal into the Sheyenne River, which
drains into the Red River, which empties into Lake Winnipeg.
Canada and the United States reached an agreement earlier this month on
several modifications to prevent harm to the Canadian lake. But some
critics in Canada were not appeased.
"We did our little modifications on a few things, so we're back in the
operations mode," said Dale Frink, North Dakota's state water engineer.
"We'll run (the outlet) on and off until Nov. 1," Frink told Reuters.
The Manitoba and Canadian governments had pushed for a review of the
Devils Lake project by the International Joint Commission, an
independent binational agency set up to resolve cross-border water
disputes.
But North Dakota said the review would take too long, and governments
had already spent more than $400 million moving homes and building and
repairing roads and bridges because of the flooding.
The Bush administration declined to refer the project to the commission,
and pushed for the agreement that saw North Dakota add more rocks and
gravel to its drain to keep fish and other organisms from leaving Devils
Lake.
Scientists from both countries are studying water quality, and U.S. and
Canadian governments will design and construct a more advanced filter
system based on the studies.
So far, biologists have not found any invasive species such as zebra
mussels in the lake, but they are still waiting on results on fish
viruses and parasites, as well as other organisms, said Dwight
Williamson, manager of water quality at Manitoba's water stewardship
department.
"Clearly, our preference would have been for all of these results to be
in prior to operation," Williamson said.
Frink said the state will drain up to 50 cubic feet of water per second
from the lake this autumn, half the rate that is allowed under a state
health department permit.
"Hopefully the lake will drop some between now and November, but we'll
have to see," he said.
He said the system could drain up to 4 inches of water if run at its
maximum rate from April until November.
Joe Belford, commissioner of North Dakota's flood-damaged Ramsey County,
who led the charge to drain the lake, said he felt relieved to see the
project up and running Monday.
"It's great that we've got it moving," Belford said. "It's been a long,
long time and a major process."
But he said the political fight about the diversion system will
continue, focusing on additional filtration for the water.
"I'm sure there's going to be a lot of going back and forth on who's
going to pay," Belford said.
Source: Reuters |