Officials with the organization Save the Sheyenne are challenging some of the facts quoted in a recent Associated Press article concerning Devils Lake flooding. The group reached those conclusions during a meeting held Wednesday in Valley City.
Save the Sheyenne is headquartered in Valley City and concerned with water quality of the Sheyenne River as it is used to drain some of the excess water from Devils Lake. The group is proposing reestablishing wetlands north of Devils Lake to reduce inflows to the lake.
"When people discuss causes and don't even mention drainage, then you're not going to get sound ideas about how to deal with the problem," said William "Archie" Moore, president of Save the Sheyenne in a press release. "If you don't try to prevent water from the upper basin from reaching the lake, you will never deal with one of the main causes of flooding."
The group is also challenging the idea of lowering the water quality standards of the Sheyenne to allow more drainage from Devils Lake.
Devils Lake has risen more than 20 feet since the early 1990s and is about 7 feet below the level where it will naturally overflow into the Sheyenne through the Tolna Coulee. Flood control and road raising projects in the area have cost an estimated $700 million since that time.
