News Releases for October 2005
October 3, 2005
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Hoeven Urges Administration To Oppose Request For More Missouri River Water Downstream
BISMARCK, N.D. - Gov. John Hoeven has urged the administration to reject appeals by Missouri’s senators to allow more water to flow down from the upper basin of the Missouri River to relieve low water levels on the Mississippi, a violation of the Flood Control Act of 1944 and the guidelines of the new master manual for river operations. In the wake of recent hurricanes in the Gulf Region, more water downstream will not help downstream states or the Gulf Region.
“Congress has set forth the permitted uses of the Missouri River reservoirs in the Flood Control Act of 1944,” Hoeven wrote in a letter to the administration last week. “In that law only Missouri River basin uses are described, with no reference to any use on the Mississippi River.”
Short-term relief for the Mississippi barge traffic will not only violate the law, but also exacerbate the long-term problem of drought for both upper basin and lower basin states, according to Hoeven. Further, increasing flows from the Missouri will not mitigate waterway impacts from recent hurricanes in the Gulf States. Additional water in the Mississippi River ports is not what the Gulf Region needs to enhance its recovery efforts.
After years of contention, it would be a serious mistake to depart from the new Master Manual, which contains added drought conservation measures to address the six-year long water shortage in the upper Missouri River Basin, Hoeven said. “During the last several years, a number of North Dakota communities have either lost, or been threatened with the loss of, their municipal water supplies in North Dakota. Lake Oahe waters have receded into neighboring South Dakota, seriously harming our state’s recreation industry, which depends on the lake.”
“To depart from the provisions of the Master Manual and current Annual Operating Plan now would be to take a step backward in our long mutual effort to find an equitable management plan for everyone who depends on the Missouri River,” Hoeven wrote. “As a state that has struggled with drought, compromised municipal water supplies and distressed wildlife habitats for half a dozen years, we sympathize with those who are contending with their own natural disasters. We firmly believe, however, that the solution is conservation management, which will ultimately benefit everyone.”
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