Sun, Mar 16, 2003
Bismarck Tribune
Letters to the Editor
Outlet more brash than bold
By GARY L. PEARSON, Jamestown
Your March 7 editorial terms the State Water Commission decision
to
continue with construction of its own outlet from Devils Lake to
the
Sheyenne River a "bold stroke." You may be right.
Synonyms for bold
include audacious (showing contempt for the restraints of law or
decorum),
defiant, impertinent (rudely officious), insolent (haughty and
contemptuous) and shameless.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that its proposed
300-cubic-feet-per-second outlet would cost nearly $200 million
to build
and several million per year to operate, would result in
significant
adverse impacts downstream on the Sheyenne and Red rivers that
would cost
tens of millions more to repair and still would not prevent the
lake from
rising, if high levels of precipitation should return.
Knowing this, the State Water Commission has nevertheless decided
to spend
$25 million of tobacco-lawsuit funds that should be going to
smoking
prevention to build a 300-cfs outlet:
* That will cost nearly $1 million per year to operate;
* For which the necessary permits have not been obtained and may
not be
approved;
* That you acknowledge is certain to be challenged in court,
costing
additional tens of thousands of dollars that should be going to
tobacco-related issues;
* That may be unusable under the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909;
* That may be unneeded, if the lake continues to go down
naturally.
Nearly half the costs of the corps' proposed outlet is to reduce
the
serious downstream impacts on the Sheyenne and Red rivers. Rather
than
addressing the downstream impacts, however, the State Water
Commission
proposes to start out pumping only 100 cfs, which means that its
outlet
would be virtually worthless in lowering the lake.
But what about those downstream impacts? The commission will
"address
problems as they occur," which means that the decision to
build the $25
million outlet is only the down payment, committing the state to
additional
tens of millions of dollars to repair the damage of the outlet's
operation
-- if it ever is operated.
Other terms might better describe to the commission's action --
like
foolish and irresponsible.