Two reasons for People To Save the Sheyenne folks to be belligerent and sarcastic, as Rick LaFleur mentioned in his Forum letter of June 12: One, The Forum editors started it. [I have five years of clippings and letters to prove it.] Two, outlet advocates keep playing the same tune: Devils Lake will overflow and a 14-foot wall of water will reduce the Sheyenne to a gutter.
Look at the facts. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Draft Environmental Impact Statement says, "[A] controlled outlet would not be able to prevent the natural overflow ... Without a long period of time to operate, the controlled outlet would have a very low chance of avoiding or even significantly reducing the natural spill potential."
Look at the Environmental Protection Agency comments: "We have rated the 'Preliminarily Selected Outlet Plan' [the Pelican Lake outlet] alternative as 'environmentally unsatisfactory' ('EU'). The basis of our rating is the significant, long-term, adverse environmental impacts from the construction of the proposed outlet and its subsequent operations."
What is it about 'No' outlet proponents don't understand?
It's hard not to be disgusted with the same non-sense hysteria.
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LaFleur mentions the responses to the Corps' DEIS. Note what LaFleur didn't say. Only three of those responses favored an outlet, and none of those cited data to support their position. One used personal attacks instead of facts.
Those who want the factual information to back up what they believe about the need for an outlet can find it in the forty critical responses to the Corps DEIS. You can find them on the St. Paul Corps Web page or on the Save the Sheyenne page: The total number of pages devoted to pointing out flaws in the DEIS is greater than the DEIS itself.
Or consider the current status of Devils Lake. There is no "wet scenario." The last two years are already back to normal precipitation. Evaporation will remove over 30 inches from Devils Lake every year -- forever. That's 10 times as much as a controlled outlet could remove.
There is no "Devils Lake Water Management Plan" in place. If there were, thousands of upper basin wetland acres would have been restored by now. Storing 100,000 acre/feet of water in the sloughs that were drained (over 22,700 drained sloughs capable of holding over 189,000 acre/feet of water) would help prevent flooding on Devils Lake.
So before an outlet can be considered, downstream recipients of poor quality water want to see the Devils Lake folks implementing solutions to their problems where they begin -- with reducing upper basin drainage. Until then people around here don't think it's fair to saddle us with more flooding and water that will degrade the Sheyenne.
I don't think that's too much to ask, do you?
Betting, Valley City, N.D., is associated with the People to Save the Sheyenne, an organization that opposes a Devils Lake flood control outlet. He can be reached at rbetting@ictc.com
