Devils Lake irrigation test project ends

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — After pulling the plug on a $1.5 million project that tested whether irrigation could help ease Devils Lake flooding, officials are floating hope for a similar project outside the basin.

A test project that began in 2005 looked at whether water from the upper Devils Lake basin could be used for irrigation, boosting the yields for soybeans, cabbage and other crops while reducing the amount of water flowing into the lake.

NDSU associate professors Dean Steele and David Hopkins said the test looked at whether irrigation might increase "evapotranspiration" — a combination of water evaporation from the soil surface and through plants.

"In some cases we did see an increase, but the increase was not as much as expected," Steele said in an interview. In other cases, the results were poor, he said.

Steele and Hopkins recommended not expanding the test project.

Jeff Frith, manager of the Devils Lake Basin Joint Water Resource Board, said engineers are now working on a plan to use lake floodwaters in the Sheyenne River for irrigation south of the basin.

"It would be outside the Devils Lake basin per se ... but would be utilizing Devils Lake water from the Sheyenne that's being put in there by the outlet," he said, referring to the system of canals and pipelines that moves water off the lake and into the river. "Could we take another 50 cfs (cubic feet per second) off the river?"

The outlet's capacity right now is 100 cfs. The state Water Commission is planning a $15.3 million upgrade that will enable the outlet to pump 250 cfs. People downstream worry the outlet will increase flooding or degrade their water quality.

Devils Lake has more than tripled in size since the early 1990s because of a series of wet years, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. It hit a record level of 1,450.72 feet last summer.

The state and federal governments contributed more than $900,000 to the irrigation test. Frith estimated that expanding it could cost tens of millions of dollars.

Instead, engineers are using about $300,000 in leftover money to develop plans for a similar project along the Sheyenne River between Devils Lake and Cooperstown. Frith said existing government and NDSU maps already have identified soil types in the area that might better handle irrigation.

Frith said he hopes to have a plan and timeline by early next year. An actual project likely would take longer. Money would need to be found, and Frith said officials want to ensure that it would not only ease flooding but also help landowners without long-term damage to private property.

"Even though the test project did not have the results that we had hoped for, there was still a plethora of valuable information gathered during the testing period," Frith said. "We are hopeful that we can take that information and apply that toward other areas."

The irrigation test project in the upper basin involved 10 sites and more than half a dozen crops. It was hampered by wet conditions and soil types less amenable to irrigation.

"I just don't think we could garner the federal and state support that we would need to expand the project," Frith said.

Ramsey County Commissioner Joe Belford said the outcome of the test project is disappointing. "We thought that was going to be a good solution," he said.

One fear was that the test project would make the soil too salty and less productive. Steele and Hopkins said in a report on the project that soil salinity testing will not be complete until early next year.

"We were really asking landowners to take a risk," Frith said. "Nobody really knew how this was going to affect the soils in this area."

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