Well, here it is the beginning of March, and it is past time for another newsletter.  We have been somewhat busy lately, so you can refer to this issue as the “past due” issue.  The busy time included having a display at the South Dakota Rural Water Users Association annual meeting in January in Pierre.  We try to attend the legislative reception, as it gives us an opportunity to visit with many state legislators.  We did get a fair amount of interest from legislators and others, with many questions and comments. 

All of the comments were in the nature of “keep up the good work”, and “Don’t give up.”  The questions usually included “What can be done?”, “What will all this cost?”, and “Who is going to pay for all of this work?  Shouldn’t it be the federal government?”  These are the same questions we usually get, and the answers don’t vary much. 

The first thing we need to do is to use existing land and watershed management programs to reduce, to the greatest extent possible, the amount of sediment getting into the reservoir.  The sediment that has gotten into the reservoirs will have to be removed where necessary to reduce the negative impacts of continued sediment accumulation. 

At this time we do not have a valid estimate of the cost, but, in our opinion, these reservoirs provide a great many benefits to many people over many states, so yes, we feel the federal government should be responsible for the cost of corrections.  This will be a tough sell to Congress, but it must be done.  

Another activity that has taken place is a visit with our congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.  Our party consisted of Alvin Van Zee (MSAC), Cheryl Van Zee (South Central Water Development District), Dennis Eisnach (Mayor of Pierre), Bill Radio (Missouri River Energy Services), and Rod Liesinger  and Howard Paul (MSAC).  We were scheduled to meet with both Senators Daschle and Johnson, but, unfortunately, our schedules were interrupted by the Ricin scare. 

We did meet with Senator Daschle, his staff member, and Senator Johnson’s staff member but Senator Johnson could not make the meeting due to a conflict.  The second day we met with Congressman Osborne’s (NE) aide, and with Senator Conrad (ND) and Congressman Pomeroy’s (ND) aides, plus our senators’ aides. 

These meetings were productive, and resulted in our being requested to provide some information and a plan of action Senator Daschle.  We also proposed a congressional summit meeting of the four Upper Missouri River states (MT, ND, SD, NE) to be followed by a congressional summit of all the states bordering the Missouri River, plus Minnesota, and all the states bordering the Mississippi River from the mouth of the Missouri down to the Gulf of Mexico. 

If we can form a coalition of these 14 states, it will give us some strong clout in Congress.  These 14 states enjoy many benefits, the largest of which is flood control (average $500 million per year), most of which takes place from Yankton, downstream.  The congressional people were receptive to this idea, and will work with us to try to accomplish this. 

We will keep you informed of our progress.

One of our members, Andy Mork, of Mandan, North Dakota, has written a book and has given me a copy of it.  The title is, “North Dakota’s Missouri River, The Way It Was, The Way It Is, and The Way It Can Be.”  I am not quite done with it, but I want to recommend it to you.  It is excellent.  Andy was raised on a farm along the Missouri River north of Mandan.  The farm was located on what is referred to as “high river bottom land.”  This is land that was built up by the silt laden waters of the Missouri River during flood times.  While Andy’s farm was not inundated by a Missouri River reservoir, thousands of acres of this very fertile and valuable land in both North Dakota and South Dakota were lost to the reservoirs. 

Andy writes of his early days on the Missouri, watching the last of the river boats operating, and subsequent years of floods, high waters, and bank erosion.  The floods have ceased, thanks to the dams, but the erosion in the areas of free flowing river in both North Dakota, below Garrison Dam to Lake Oahe, and in South Dakota, below Fort Randall Dam to Lewis and Clark Lake, has continued. 

Andy has been involved in the battle to get bank protection for those areas that are subject to erosion in his state. He and his neighbors are experiencing the same erosion problems as are the land owners below the Fort Randall Dam. 

With Andy’s permission, I am going to quote a few passages from his book.

Page 3 refers to the ice-jam flood of 1952, before the closure of Garrison Dam. 

“When the ice jam just above Bismarck broke, the river reached a high stage of 24.7 feet and flowed at 500,000 cubic feet per second. Compare that with river stages now of six to 13 feet and average flows of 22,000 cfs!  Water depths of six to 10 feet were common on the high bottomland.” 

On page 4, following the closure of Garrison Dam, he goes on to say:

 “The Garrison Dam prevented any flooding by controlling discharges and thus verifying that the Garrison to Oahe reach is no longer considered a flood plain.”

On page 17, in discussing the benefits of flood control and the development of protected lands north of Bismarck/Mandan, Andy writes:  

“Additional assurance was added in the summer of 1997 when the Garrison Dam successfully retained once in 200 years June rise that otherwise would have put an estimated four feet of water in the Kirkwood shopping area and all other high bottom land of this reach.”

On page 20, when discussing the impacts caused by sediment deltas, and in referring to the specific Yellowstone River delta in western North Dakota, the book states:

“The water pumping intake for Williston has also been impacted by the delta which has raised the bottom of the river by over 17 feet.  The city continues to move and attempt to improve its water intake to cope with the increasing delta.”

In my opinion, this is an excellent book, with an insight provided by someone who has lived along the river for many years and has had to deal with the benefits provided, and the problems caused by, the construction of the dams and reservoirs.  If any one would be interested in obtaining a copy of this book, contact Andy Mork at 3362 22nd Avenue, Mandan, North Dakota, 58544, or by telephone at 701-663-3840.

Senator Daschle also wanted to know what is needed in the agricultural programs to implement land and watershed conservation practices necessary to reduce to the greatest degree possible the amount of sediment reaching the reservoirs. 

We have been working with the state conservationists from Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska to check existing programs in order to determine which ones would work and what funding is needed.  Those four individuals, plus the regional conservationist have come up with a suggested program to determine the location of sediment origin in those four states in the drainage basins that affect the reservoirs.  It would appear that funding might be available to implement that program.  The information has been forwarded to Senator Daschle’s office.  We will report on the results in a later newsletter.

We have included an aerial photo of the sediment delta created by the White River as it enters Lake Francis Case south of Oacoma/Chamberlain, South Dakota.  When you look at this photo, remember that it is a 1993 photo.  We are trying to get a recent photo to compare the growth of this delta in the subsequent years.  Stay tuned for more pictures in the future.

That is it for this issue.  Have a good spring.