News Releases for November 2006
November 9, 2006
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Hoeven Calls On Corps To Retain Water In Lake Sakakawea To Replenish Lake Audubon
Corps Agrees To Retain Additional Foot Of Water In Planned Audubon Draw Down
BISMARCK, N.D. - Gov. John Hoeven today said the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to reduce water levels on Lake Audubon two rather than three feet. At the same time, the Governor continued to press the agency to restore the water by spring for the spawning season.
Hoeven’s office pressed the issue with the Corps at a meeting today in Bismarck. In addition to staff from the Governor’s Office, the heads of the N.D. Department of Transportation, the State Water Commission and the Game and Fish Department also attended the meeting.
“Dropping levels two feet rather than three is a step in the right direction, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this,” Hoeven said. “As a public safety issue, it needs to be addressed, but the right way is to balance the reservoirs with more water in Sakakawea, not to draw down Lake Audubon. Also, the Corps has now indicated they will work to restore the water in Audubon for the spring spawn.”
The request came in response to the Corps’ announcement last week that it planned to lower water levels in Lake Audubon by three feet to balance pressure on the Highway 83 causeway running between Lakes Audubon and Sakakawea. Hoeven disputed the move in a telephone call with Col. David Press, the Corps’ Omaha District Commander. Early last month at a meeting in Bismarck the Governor called on U.S. Assistant Sec. for the Army Paul Woodley to shorten the downstream navigation season by two months and implement additional conservation measures to address low water levels caused by an ongoing drought in the region.
“Lowering water levels in an upper basin reservoir to support a barge industry that doesn’t even exist downstream is illogical,” Hoeven said. “In the short term, the Corps needs to retain water in Lake Audubon and raise the level on Sakakawea to achieve the balance needed to protect the causeway. In the long and short-term, they need to reduce the season from eight to six months and implement adequate conservation measures. Until they take those steps to respect all interests on the system, they will end up with these counterproductive, ad hoc patches to the management plan.”
Hoeven said the Corps would hold a public meeting next week to further explain details and objectives for their decision.
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