The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has released its Devils Lake final Integrated Planning Report and Environmental Impact Statement for public comment.
The report identifies constructing a 8.5m3/sec outlet from Pelican lake to the Sheyenne river as the preferred alternative to alleviate flood damage at Devils Lake, if the lake, in North Dakota, continues to rise. This plan consists of installing pumping facilities, an open channel and a buried pipeline as well as mitigation features to avoid or minimise effects on the environment.
These environmental mitigation features include acquiring and managing 2428ha of riparian habitat, protecting the project from erosion, maintaining high-flow bypass channels to provide for critical aquatic habitat and building a sand filter to minimise the risk of biota transfer from the lake into the Sheyenne river. The project cost is estimated at US$186.5M.
USACE’s St. Paul District has distributed a printed copy of a report summary and a CD-ROM of the report. For further information, tel: +1 651 290 5435.