News Releases for October 2006
October 18, 2006
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Hoeven Calls On Sec. Woodley To Shorten The Missouri River Navigation Season
BISMARCK, N.D. –Gov. John Hoeven today called on U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works John Paul Woodley Jr. to shorten the downstream navigation season and implement additional conservation measures on the Missouri River.
Hoeven arranged a roundtable meeting Wednesday with the Secretary to discuss improved water management on the Missouri River and the Garrison and Oahe Reservoirs. Hoeven asked Woodley to come to North Dakota to learn firsthand how the Army Corps of Engineers’ management of the river is impacting municipal water supplies, recreation, fisheries and agriculture.
Joining Hoeven were representatives from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, ND Department of Health, Friends of Lake Sakakawea, ND Game and Fish Department, State Water Commission, Voices of Oahe, ND Parks and Recreation Department and the ND Irrigation Association.
“You need to see firsthand the impacts of your management policies on the people who live and work on the river system in the upper basin,” Hoeven told Secretary Woodley. “You’ll see clearly that the Corps needs to shorten the barge season by the full 61 days allowed in the Master Manual. A six rather than eight month season will enable everyone – both upstream and downstream interests – to plan going forward to minimize the disruption to all. Downstream interests can plan to use additional rail and trucking, and upstream interests know they will retain more water to support agriculture, municipal water supplies and commercial fisheries.”
Hoeven has earlier called on the Corps to implement a number of specific actions to address low water levels in the upper Missouri:
- Plan for continued extreme drought conditions, including prevention of municipal water supply interruptions.
- Suspend targeted releases when barges are not moving on the lower Missouri.
- Protect cold water habitat by continuing daily flow cycling and discharging the majority of the water through the modified penstocks. Efforts should commence on a permanent fix to the intake structure to preserve cold water habitat.
- Provide additional funding for lake access. The Omaha staff should work cooperatively with Upper Basin states to secure funding in the Corps’ budget to allow COE assistance for state and local access ramps on the large lakes. The majority of ramps on Lake Sakakawea are currently non-COE owned.
- Inventory lake access issues this fall on both lakes. Establish a funding plan to be put into the Corps’ budget, which is based on projected access needs for the spring of 2007.
- Control noxious weeds. Increase funding for control of noxious weeds on Corps lands on Lakes Sakakawea and Oahe. Canada Thistle and wormwood are major weeds. Salt Cedar is on the rise on the shoreline and needs to be kept in check. Salt Cedar was first detected in North Dakota on Lake Sakakawea.
- Redirect to the state federal funds for the Fort Stevenson State Park Marina, which are currently delayed because of higher projected costs by the Corps. The State of North Dakota could construct the project for two-thirds of the Corps’ estimated $11 million cost.
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