KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/DickinsonPush for River Management Change

Push for River Management Change

Friday's meeting among political leaders of North Dakota and Saskatchewan produced significant results regarding the future of management of the Souris-Mouse River.

The premier and minister of environment from Saskatchewan met with the governor and one US senator from North Dakota in Regina on Friday.
The group emerged with a promise of more flexibility for water managers this spring - and, more importantly, a desire to re-write the 1989 international management agreement that currently governs the river.
Saskatchewan's environment minister said a key to long-term changes in management will be acknowledging that heavy rain in the basin that drains into the Canadian reservoirs must be considered in managing the water.

(Dustin Duncan, Saskatchewan Minister of Environment) "These dams and reservoirs were built largely for snow melt events.  What really wasn't contemplated was these large precipitation events so now that's something that we need to address."

In addition, the men said the 2011 flood proved that more water needs to be released earlier in the season following very wet winters.
It was the limited releases from dams early in the 2011 season that allowed the Canadian reservoirs to fill up to capacity, requiring the dam gates to be thrown open following a huge rain storm in mid-June.

(Sen. John Hoeven, -R- North Dakota) "What Governor Dalrymple and I have talked about is being able to sustain a higher flow over time should conditions warrant that.  In other words if you have a lot of snow pack, you've got a wet year, you've got a lot of precipitation to move, Saskatchewan, the International Souris River Board, has to be able to move more water - the plan has to be allowed to move more water over an extended period of time."
(Brad Wall, Saskatchewan Premier) "If these events are trending and we happen to be in a year where the snow pack was as great as it was in 2011, and while we can't predict a rain in June while we're in February or January, we may want to establish a new protocol that allows for, under that operating agreement, a release that, previously, we wouldn't have done.  I don't think we want to take that off the table.  That needs to be a part of the review of the current agreement, the 1989 agreement."

The International Souris River Board meets in less than two weeks in Bismarck and is expected to take up some of the potential changes to the 1989 river management agreement.
Environment Minister Duncan said he believes changes can be made to the management agreement within a couple of years.