Richard Betting, Valley City
Recent news coverage about the completion of the Tolna Coulee control structure included a statement by Corps Commander Maj. Gen. John Peabody who was quoted as saying, "The Corps has done what it can up in Devils Lake, and now it's time to do some work downstream that will be affected by Devils Lake water."
But from the perspective of downstream Sheyenne River users it may already be too late for that.
The news item explained that once the stop logs are taken out of the control structure, "they won't be put back in," according to Bruce Engelhardt of the N.D. State Water Commission.
In other words, if the Tolna coulee has eroded down to an elevation of 1,446 feet above mean sea level by then, all of the water in Devils Lake above that elevation will forever flow through the coulee and into the Sheyenne River.
The 3,810 square mile Devils Lake watershed will have been added to the Sheyenne River watershed at the elevation of 1,446 feet msl. That's 12 feet lower than the overflow elevation of 1,458 feet.
In 2009 and 2011, for example, that would have meant that almost 600,000 acre-feet of Devils Lake water would have been discharged into the river, adding to downstream flooding that had already set records.
And, no, the flows from Devils Lake won't be limited to "only" 3,000 cfs from Devils Lake. The Corps Operating Plan for the Tolna Coulee control structure states, "While [a] maximum flow of 3,000 cfs is the controlling factor, there is a chance of flows exceeding more than 3,000 cfs during any large inflow event." (p. 7)
What does "any large inflow event" mean? How about half a million acre-feet of water flowing into Devils Lake from the upper Devils Lake basin?
How many "large inflow events" will it take before Valley City and other downstream cities and residents insist that the so-called operating plan be changed and, at a minimum, stop logs be replaced in the "uncontrolled" structure?
Or is it already too late for that?