Map of North Dakota Watersheds
History of Water Management has meant “drainage” management.
Decades of "water management" has formed the Devils Lake Watershed Basin into what it is now: 2.6 m million acres of contributing land connected through 22,700 drains into Devils Lake. Devils Lake fluctuates with annual rain and snow amounts and has no natural outlet until reaching 1459’ above sea level.
As massive drainage channels have connected several watershed areas,, the increased amount of runoff water and precipitation collected in Devils Lake has accumulated higher than is usual during recent years. Devils Lake has not overflowed into the Sheyenne River for thousands of years. This increased drainage along with added precipitation has resulted in Devils Lake rising -some of this rise can be attributed to high precipitation as most of eastern North Dakota has seen during this time, but nowhere else has it risen to that extent.
Some of this rise, however, can be attributed to aggressive drainage programs, funneling vast amounts of water into the now connected massive network of channels, coulees, road ditches and culverts, upper basin lakes and finally into Devils Lake. As the elevated water level of Devils Lake has inundated land, farms, homes and businesses since 1993 high precipitation events began, cropland has been lost to flooding and homes and businesses have been vacated or moved. The upper basin draining continues, regardless of concerns of flooding in the lower basin.
View the map showing the various separate watershed basins that are now connected through a network of connected drains.