[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 82 (Thursday, June 12, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5554-S5555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           DEVILS LAKE FLOOD

  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I have taken to the floor numerous times 
since the disasters that struck North Dakota and attempted to describe 
to my colleagues the really remarkable series of events that we have 
experienced: First of all, the greatest snowfall in our State's 
history; followed by a winter storm in early April that was the most 
powerful winter storm in 50 years, knocking out the electrical grid to 
80,000 people for more than a week, leaving people with 15-foot 
snowdrifts, leaving people with the most powerful ice storm that we 
have ever seen that killed literally hundreds of thousands of cattle in 
North and South Dakota and also tied up the transportation system for 
most of our State, as well as much of South Dakota and parts of 
Minnesota. That was then followed by the 500-year flood, which was 
cataclysmic in Grand Forks. All of the dikes failed, a city of 50,000 
was evacuated. Many of those people are still not back in their homes. 
In fact, 80 percent of the city of Grand Forks was in some way damaged 
by the floods. And, in the midst of all that, a fire broke out that 
destroyed much of downtown Grand Forks.
  This is a series of events, unparalleled in our State's history, and 
it has left much of our economy in ruins. It has left people sleeping 
on cots, living in cars, wondering what will happen to them next. And, 
as I think everyone here knows now, the disaster bill has been delayed.
  But the good news is, there are serious negotiations underway to 
resolve this issue and resolve it today, and for that we are extremely 
grateful.
  Mr. President, I thought today, because I have spent a great deal of 
time describing the circumstances in Grand Forks, ND, and in the rest 
of the Red River Valley, that I would take a bit of time to describe 
the developing disaster in Devils Lake, ND, because not only have we 
had this remarkable series of events in the Red River Valley, but 
Devils Lake, a town of over 9,000 people, has had a slow-motion 
disaster occurring. This is one of only two major lakes in North 
America that has a closed basin--no inlet and no outlet. For the last 4 
years, the lake has been rising inexorably.
  This chart shows the historic water level of Devils Lake. This chart 
goes from 1867 to 1997, 130 years. You can see the recorded history is 
the blue line. Recorded history starts back in about 1890, and the lake 
was at about 1,423 feet. It then went into a period of steep decline 
where it went down to just over 1,400 feet. But look what has happened 
since the 1930's. That lake has been rising, sometimes falling, but in 
recent history, in the last 30 years, rising dramatically. And in the 
last 4 years, this lake has just gone up and up and up.
  Some people might say, ``Well, the lake is rising. You know, that's 
not that big a deal.''
  Mr. President, this lake is nearly 200 square miles. It is a huge 
lake. It is nearly three times the size of the entire area of the 
District of Columbia. This is a lake that is rising inexorably and is 
acting like a cancer. It is eating everything around it. It is 
submerging roads, it is inundating homes and bridges. It is just eating 
up the countryside. In the last 4 years, it has tripled in volume and 
doubled in size. It is very hard to understand or appreciate this 
circumstance, because nowhere else in the country do we face anything 
quite like it.
  Mr. President, if I can just show this next chart, it shows the 
summary of damages in the Devils Lake area. As this lake level rises, 
you can see what happens to the cost in terms of damages. Already we 
have spent over $114 million, and that is just from the Federal 
Government, addressing this disaster. But you can see as the water 
level rises, the estimates from the Army Corps of Engineers is that we 
would face over $400 million in Federal costs if the lake level 
continues to rise. As I indicated, the Federal Government has already 
spent over $114 million coping with this crisis.
  This next picture shows the lake and how it has expanded. You can 
see, this is the luckiest guy in America today. He just got through on 
this road. He was driving along, and it looks like he escaped from the 
lake. You can see the lake coming over the road. This is actually a 
road, the Minnewaukan Flats Road, completely covered by water now. You 
can see the various tree lines.

[[Page S5555]]

 You can see how this lake has been expanding and expanding very, very 
dramatically.
  This is one of my favorite pictures, Mr. President, because this 
shows the little town of Minnewaukan, ND, of 400 people, and they have 
a sewage lagoon--you can see the outlines of it--surrounded completely 
now by Devils Lake. When the Federal officials came to Devils Lake, 
they said to the mayor of the little town of Minnewaukan, ``Gee, why 
did you build this sewage lagoon so close to the lake?'' And the mayor 
and the local officials laughed and they said, ``Well, when we built 
this sewage lagoon, it was 8 miles from the lake''--8 miles. That is 
how this lake has expanded. Mr. President, this is truly an 
extraordinary circumstance.
  This next picture shows a seed company and what has happened to their 
operation. It is completely surrounded by water now in this area of 
Devils Lake. And this water is deep, by the way. It is just amazing how 
this lake keeps rising.
  This picture shows one of the key roads, Highway 57, that connects 
the city of Devils Lake to the Spirit Lake Nation and to the 
communities south of Devils Lake. You can see the wave action. These 
are 5-feet waves on this lake completely breaking over the highway. In 
fact, if we were to go and take this picture today, this entire road 
now is under water. That is how rapidly this lake is rising. In fact, 
it has come up 4 feet already this year. And now remember, we are not 
talking about some little tranquil lake, we are talking about a huge 
expanse of water, a lake that is nearly 200 square miles in size now. 
That is what we are dealing with here, and the water keeps rising.

  Mr. President, those are the pictures I wanted to show our 
colleagues. An important point I wanted to make is that in this 
disaster supplemental bill, there are a number of measures to address 
this crisis, in addition to the crisis we have in the Red River Valley, 
where we had the 500-year flood. We also have provisions to deal with 
this crisis at Devils Lake.
  First, is a provision for an emergency outlet. The Corps of Engineers 
has determined that one of the things we need to do to fight this 
disaster is to have an emergency outlet, because we are very close to 
the point at which this lake will find its own outlet. And if it does, 
it will be out of the eastern end of the lake where the water quality 
is, by far, the worst, and it will go over into Stump Lake. At that 
time, Stump Lake will immediately rise 40 feet. It is hard to get your 
mind around these numbers because this is so massive. But when this 
finds its natural outlet at 1,446.6 feet--it is right now at 1,442 
feet--at 1,446.6 feet, it spills over into Stump Lake, raising that 
lake immediately 40 feet.
  At 1,457 feet, it spills over into the Sheyenne River Valley, and, as 
I showed the cumulative impact, we are then talking about over $400 
million of cost to the Federal Government. The emergency outlet 
requires $5 million for the work that needs to be done this year, and 
that is in this disaster supplemental bill.
  Second, we need to raise the levy protecting the city of Devils Lake, 
and this legislation directs the Corps to expedite action to raise the 
levy system protecting the city of Devils Lake. The city right now has 
a dike that is protecting it to about 1,445 feet. This provision will 
move the protection to 1,450 feet, with 5 feet of free board to deal 
with the wave action on this very large lake.
  Third, there are provisions for emergency funding for Federal Highway 
Administration to raise roads, because, as I showed, the main linkage 
point here is already under water. That road--Highway 57--has to be 
raised and needs to be raised as quickly as possible because it 
provides the emergency access to all of the communities south of Devils 
Lake and the Spirit Lake Nation to the regional hospital and the 
regional shopping center that is in the city of Devils Lake.
  Fourth, this legislation provides for the Ramsey County rural sewer 
system some $600,000 to mitigate damages from the Devils Lake flood to 
the Ramsey County rural sewer system. As you can imagine, Mr. 
President, this is a situation in which the rural sewer system is about 
to float. That is a very bad thing to have happen. All of those 
underground pipes, as the water table rises, puts enormous hydrological 
pressure on that rural sewer system, and they are desperately worried 
that at any time, those pipes will burst through the ground and float. 
At that point, the entire rural sewer system is destroyed. It is 
critically important that that money be approved and be approved as 
quickly as possible.
  Fifth, and finally, this legislation includes $15 million for the 
Natural Resources Conservation Service to purchase floodplain easements 
for frequently flooded farmland. Landowners in the Devils Lake basin 
would be eligible for this voluntary floodplain easement program.
  Mr. President, I wanted to take this time to describe this disaster 
so there is an understanding that not only are we dealing with the 
crisis in the Red River basin, the cities of Grand Forks and other 
cities up and down the Red River, but that we have a second disaster as 
well, a slow-motion disaster, and that is the disaster that is 
occurring at Devils Lake and that there are very important matters that 
are included in this disaster supplemental bill that deal with those 
problems.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  Mr. BENNETT addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from Utah.

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