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More work, new life in Garrison project

The work load at the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District headquarters in Carrington, N.D., is increasing, but the district’s general manager doesn’t mind.

Duwayne Dekrey sees the added work as a sign that there’s still life in the century-old dream of moving water from the Missouri River to eastern North Dakota. In fact the project does seem livelier now than it’s been in a generation, since the Garrison Diversion Reformulation Act was passed 30 years ago.

In an interview Thursday, Dekrey said a couple of important steps have been taken, and another is imminent.

The Bureau of Reclamation is expected to release a draft environmental impact statement this week that examine a new plan to take water from the river. There’ll be a 30-day comment period, and Dekrey expects that to end with a “FONSI,” which is governmental jargon for “finding of no significant impact.”

That would allow the state to use existing features of the old diversion plan.

These include the Snake Creek Pumping Station, which carries water from Lake Sakakawea, a reservoir on the Missouri River into Lake Audubon. An existing outlet from that lake would put water into the McClusky Canal. From there it would flow south to a second pumping station which would put water in a pipeline leading toward Jamestown and the Red River Valley.

This is not your father’s Garrison Diversion project — far from it. It even has a new name, the Red River Valley Water Supply project. The water would be used for municipal water systems and for industry. The earlier project was intended largely for irrigation.

The environmental statement follows another important development. The last state Legislature appropriated $17 million for planning and permitting. That’s expected to be completed by the time the Legislature meets again. The budget includes $13 million more for construction. Dekrey believes that might begin while next session is under way early in 2019.

Developments aren’t limited to Bismarck and Carrington. The mood in Washington has shifted toward water development projects. Dekrey said he understands that the Trump administration’s attitude is “Get to yes” on projects brought forward by states.

Not only that, the secretary of interior is Ryan Zinke, formerly Montana’s representative in the U.S. Congress, where he worked closely with North Dakota’s sole representative, Kevin Cramer.

Dekrey expects that will help the project “get to yes.”

There’s evidence of this. The Washington lobbyist whom the Conservancy District employed to look after its interests has been named deputy secretary of Interior. His name is David Bernhard. The appointment was greeted with dismay in the environmental community, but that doesn’t dim Dekrey’s optimism.

A couple of items do temper his attitude.

“Canada is never going to let us dump untreated water” across the divide between the Missouri River basin, which drains to the south – American territory – and the Red River basin, which drains north into Canada. Nevertheless, he sees “positive signals” from the Canadians. He believes they may be willing to accept a lesser level of purification than they demanded in the past.

The weather contributes to Dekrey’s optimism, as well. “People are starting to remember the Drought of the 1930s,” he said. Applications for irrigation water from the McClusky Canal have increased. A test station for irrigation in the Oakes area is in use.

Still, the Conservancy District has plenty of “stranded assets,” elements of the earlier irrigation-based project that are not being used. The last Legislature passed a resolution suggesting that the state take ownership of these “and utilizing it for authorized project purposes.” This resolution forestalled a move that might have declared parts of the earlier project “surplus property” not needed by the federal government and subject to sale.

Although the reformulation compromise and subsequent federal legislation seemed to have doomed the old Garrison project, some “un-reformulated” supporters of the project have developed new hope. One of these is Charon Johnson, who worked for the Conservancy District as spokesman and lobbyist for 16 years.

Now in his mid-80s, long retired and living in Arizona, Johnson continues to press for the original project. In mid-July, I joined him for a tour of the area northwest of Devils Lake. Thousands of acres have been flooded there as Devils Lake has risen to near-historic high levels. Johnson once farmed some of that land. Now he sees it as part of a solution to the state’s chronic water shortages.

His idea is to swap that land – still mostly privately owned – for the Lonetree Game Management Area near Harvey. That land is publicly owned, having been acquired as the site for a re-regulating reservoir that would have been vital to the project. The dam itself was never completed, but some parts of the plan are among the diversion project’s now stranded assets.

So despite the years and despite the odds, there’s still life in the Garrison project.

Mike Jacobs is a former editor and publisher of the Grand Forks Herald. His email is mjacobs@gfherald.com.

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