Beneficial drought

People relieved Devils Lake water levels are finally dropping

By MARVIN BAKER, Staff Writer, mbaker@minotdailynews.com
DEVILS LAKE – It’s hard to believe that a drought could be beneficial, but people who live around Devils Lake in Ramsey and Benson counties are breathing a sigh of relief these days.


Moderate drought conditions that have reached northeastern North Dakota for the first time in 16 years are at least partially responsible for the lake dropping more than 2 feet since June 2007, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.


At 2 p.m. Friday, Devils Lake’s elevation was 1,446.94 feet above sea level, down from its all-time high of 1,449.2 feet on May 9, 2006.


“The lake has dropped some, but not enough to get to the farmland,” said landowner Terry Borstad, who has lost roughly 1,000 acres since the lake began gobbling up his property in the mid-1990s. “There’s just not enough runoff to be able to get to it.”


Jeff Frith, manager of the Devils Lake Basin Joint Water Resource Board, said a three-pronged approach is gradualy reducing the lake level.


One of them, which has been mired in controversy, is the Devils Lake outlet. It essentially drains excess water into nearby Stump Lake.


Ever since Devils Lake rose above 1,446 feet, it has been draining into the Nelson County lake. And as of 10 a.m. Friday, both lakes equalized at 1,446.94 feet.


Upper basin management is another key to reducing flooding on North Dakota’s largest natural lake, according to Frith. He said that has helped, although it wouldn’t make a significant difference in the lake level.


Mostly, it’s nature and the lack of precipitation this spring and over the past winter. Frith said that has had the greatest impact on the lake in the past 18 months.


“I can’t speak for the rest of the residents, but I am sure people are pleased that Devils Lake is going down,” Frith said. “The drought that North Dakota is in is having many negative impacts on the residents of the state and they don’t want others to suffer.”


Frith said it’s important to remember that short-term droughts have occurred within previous wet cycles, even though the general trend has been toward too much precipitation.


“The folks in the basin don’t want to get up false hope with the earlier reports that there is a 70 percent chance of the current wet cycle continuing for the next 10 years,” he said. “I don’t think we should rest on our laurels. It just isn’t a good bet that the wet cycle is over.”


However, the U.S. Geological Survey in April 1998, predicted a 50 percent chance that by 2008, the lake level would be 1,441 feet. There was a 5 percent chance in 1998 that Devils Lake would be 1,448 feet, which is about a foot from its Friday level.


Further, USGS has predicted a 50 percent chance that by 2018, the lake will have dropped to 1,436 feet, its approximate level in 1999. The all-time low for Devils Lake was 1,402 feet in 1940.


The U.S. Drought Monitor’s long-term forecast of 90 days is calling for continued drought across 90 percent of North Dakota through August, including Ramsey and Benson counties. That should take the lake down a little bit more, according to Frith.


Ed Murphy, the state geologist with the USGS in Bismarck, said statistics aside, watersheds that empty into Devils Lake simply didn’t have much of a snowpack over the winter, thus less spring runoff drained into the lake without an outlet.


And drought conditions and a windier-than-average spring, have forced abundant evaporation, which adds to the mix, according to Murphy.


But like Frith, Murphy won’t get too excited just yet.


“This would explain why lake levels are dropping, or not rising,” Murphy said. “You typically see this during this time of year.”


Ramsey County Commissioner Joe Belford, who has been on a crusade to stabilize Devils Lake, isn’t betting the farm on the lake dropping a whole lot more than it has, at least in the short term.


Obviously, Belford would like to see it drop significantly so his 10-year fight with Canadian authorities over the drainage situation would subside, but he’ll take it as it comes, just as Lake Region residents did when the lake dropped to unprecedented levels in the early 1930s.


According to Borstad, other landowners like himself aren’t counting on the lake to drop enough in the next several years to farm the currently submerged land again.


Having said that, they are hoping the new farm bill will help them out with a CRP program that will pay the landowner for putting property into reserve, which theoretically, it has been.


“I’m anxious to see the details to see if it’s something we can work with,” Borstad said. “Sure, taxes are reduced, but we can’t farm it so it’s still a negative impact.”


Borstad, who was getting set to finish his 2008 seeding on Friday, said he has had the best planting conditions he can remember since 1992. Otherwise, it’s been too cool and wet to get much work done at any one time.