First in a two-part series on Devils Lake, Mainstreet Radio’s Dan Gunderson reports on the changes that have taken place to lake in northeast North Dakota, which has risen nearly 25 feet in the past six years. The lake has no natural outlet to release water and above normal precipitation in recent years has raised the lake to levels not seen in recorded history.
Thousands of acres of farmland are submerged, hundreds of homes have been moved, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent protecting roads, utilities and towns. There’s growing concern the lake will overflow and threaten downstream communities…including Fargo-Moorhead.
Transcripts
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DAN GUNDERSON: 50 years ago, people around Devils Lake were begging for water. Farmers raised crops in the lake bottom. Huge clouds of dust blew off the dry lake bed. Retired newspaper editor Russell Dushinski remembers the day President Franklin Roosevelt came to see the disaster in the late 1930s.
RUSSELL DUSHINSKI: It was a dry, dusty day in July. The open car took him around the lake. And they had signs. They put up signs on certain areas-- you gave us beer. Now give us water.
DAN GUNDERSON: The locals thought if Roosevelt could end prohibition, he could bring water to a dry lake. They wanted the president to support a plan to build a canal to bring water from the Missouri River to Devils Lake. Roosevelt refused.
Dushinski says the lake withered to little more than a stinky marsh. The lake began to come back to life in the 1950s as rainfall in the region increased. In the '90s, it's become a monster.
The lake has risen nearly 25 feet since 1993 and quadrupled in size. It's become one of the best fishing spots in the Midwest. But that's little consolation to those watching the devastation spread. Many have called on the government to do something. But County Commissioner Joe Belford says he's contemplating other options.
JOE BELFORD: I think that the community needs to choose a Sunday soon for whatever we want to label it for prayers to God on helping us get through this dilemma. I think that the timing is here. And I think the people are looking for something like that to pray to God that maybe this thing will go away before it destroys us all.
DAN GUNDERSON: Devils Lake is Joe Belford's obsession. The part-time county commissioner now works full time fighting floodwater and bureaucracy. Outside his office at Joe's corner mart, the numbers painted on a pole next to the gas pumps are a sobering reminder that many residents in the city of Devils Lake live behind a wall of water.
JOE BELFORD: If the dike are not in place, it would be 7 feet of water in this room. So it is a phenomenon thing that's happening. And no one alive has ever seen it.
DAN GUNDERSON: Half of the city of Devils Lake would be underwater if not for a massive $60 million dike. It's really not a dike. It's a 7-mile-long dam holding back 21 feet of water. If the lake rises another 13 feet, as some predict, the dam will have to be raised at a cost of $100 million.
Construction equipment roars all around Devils Lake, building up roads, moving homes away from the lake and raising dikes. As he drives along the newly formed lakeshore, Joe Belford points out dozens of homes threatened by the rising water.
JOE BELFORD: So you see how close the lake is right here. It won't be long. But this home right here, I understand, is going to be burnt because there's no physical way to get it out of here. It's probably a $200,000 home.
DAN GUNDERSON: About 400 homes have been moved or destroyed as the lake engulfs them.
JOE BELFORD: You're getting ready to depart?
BARRY RONGEN: Clipping wires.
JOE BELFORD: Clipping wires?
BARRY RONGEN: Just got the power shut off.
DAN GUNDERSON: A sandbag dike keeps the lake out of Barry Rongen's home. A couple of years ago, Barry had 35 neighbors. Now, just a handful of homes remain. And soon his will move to higher ground, too.
BARRY RONGEN: It was OK until this spring because, in a way, the water was nice because we enjoyed the lake. But then now, in a way, we hate the water. It's a love-hate relationship.
DAN GUNDERSON: Some homes high above the water have been abandoned because the roads to them are underwater. County Commissioner Joe Belford says some highways have been rebuilt three or four times. But the lake rises as fast as construction crews can raise the roads.
JOE BELFORD: It's just like going to the casino. You put $10 in the machine. You think, well, we'll throw another $10 in. That's what's happened here. Everybody was guessing that this would never continue to do that with the roads and infrastructure and all that. But it just keeps gobbling up our quarters and stacks of quarters.
DAN GUNDERSON: Nearly $300 million has been spent to protect roads and utilities around Devils Lake. While the city of Devils Lake is protected by a dike, some smaller towns face the lake unprotected.
The ever-present prairie wind whistles through the grain elevator at Church's Ferry, a harbinger perhaps of a soon-to-be ghost town. Rising water threatens to engulf the sleepy community of 120. There's been talk of moving the town. But the cost may be prohibitive. Odds are if the lake continues to rise, Church's Ferry will simply cease to exist in a couple of years.
JARVIS HAUGEBERG: The lake is the enemy. In my mind, the lake is absolutely the enemy. And right now, the enemy is winning.
DAN GUNDERSON: Jarvis Haugeberg manages the BTR Farmer's Elevator in Church's Ferry. It's the biggest business in town, with annual revenues of $20 million. But Haugeberg sees no future for the business.
JARVIS HAUGEBERG: I've only invested 10 years of my life here. And I don't want to move. I don't want to move at all. Had I been born and raised here and farmed this land for 25 years, I for sure wouldn't want to move. And there's just nothing you can do, though. You just can't stop this water.
DAN GUNDERSON: Nowhere has the advancing lake been more dramatic than the small farming town of Minnewaukan.
VERN THOMPSON: Where we're standing here at Minnewaukan, We're on the edge of the lakeshore. In 1993, the lake was 8 miles east of here. You couldn't even see the water.
DAN GUNDERSON: Vern Thompson is a North Dakota state senator from Minnewaukan. He says by this fall, the beach will be within a stone's throw of the high school on the edge of town. The county fairgrounds will be under water.
Thompson says, at times, the problems caused by the lake seem completely overwhelming. City and county governments are out of money. Dealing with the 17 federal agencies now involved in Devils Lake can be a nightmare. And always hanging overhead is the fear of just how high the lake will rise.
VERN THOMPSON: This lake has been like a cancer, eating away at people's homes and livelihoods. And that's the emotional side of it that has really taken a toll on people.
DAN GUNDERSON: It's unclear how or when this disaster will end. Forecasters say the current wet cycle will last another five to seven years. The lake is expected to continue rising at a rate of 3 to 5 feet a year. At that rate, in 5 to 10 years, the lake will find an outlet and send water flooding down the Sheyenne River to communities like Valley City and Fargo-Moorhead.
Local and state officials have tried to build an outlet to the lake for years. 28 outlet plans have been drawn up and rejected. Environmentalists and officials from Minnesota and Canada say an outlet will cause environmental damage. The debate over an outlet will likely soon shift to the courts. I'm Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio.