ND 20 & ND 57 Devil's Lake Causeway Construction

[Brian556]

GSV dated Nov 2012 shows massive construction on the causeways. Looks like an emergency operation. The road is reduced to dirt, and the causeways are being raised due to the rising lake level. There are military trucks in GSV, but its hard to tell if they are just passing through or have involvement

For those of you that don't know, this lake has risen significantly in recent years due to increased rainfall, which is possibly due to climate change.

This is pretty cool.

Watch this video: Just holy shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbrOhkRWzXM

GSV:
https://www.google.com/maps/@48.0365233,-98.8936556,3a,68.9y,174.01h,86.11t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHJBKAv3-R0n3TjuMkvhSzQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Satellite:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carrington,+ND+58421/@48.0493818,-98.8685158,9685m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x533a1b79bbac00fb:0xa3f69bf1b672ee7e!2sMiles+City,+MT+59301!3b1!8m2!3d46.4083362!4d-105.8405582!3m4!1s0x52daec7b8d4df3ad:0x992750eceda01f3b!8m2!3d47.4497196!4d-99.1262215

[froggie]

Military trucks were likely just passing through.  This was mainly a state operation, with some funding from the Army Corps of Engineers.

And it's not just ND 20 and ND 57 that have been raised.  ND 19 has also been raised, and US 281 was relocated about a decade ago entirely to the west to a "safer elevation".  There's a local road that has also been raised to access what is now called "Grahams Island" (which wasn't an island prior to 1997).

Regarding the lake, it's currently at about 1,451ft elevation (as of this morning's lake gauge).  It could theoretically rise about another 8 feet, but not much beyond that as once it hits around 1,459ft, it will naturally begin flowing into the Sheyenne River.

[MNHighwayMan]

Regarding the lake, it's currently at about 1,451ft elevation (as of this morning's lake gauge).  It could theoretically rise about another 8 feet, but not much beyond that as once it hits around 1,459ft, it will naturally begin flowing into the Sheyenne River.

This makes me wonder why the roads weren't constructed above that height to begin with. Cheapness? A belief that lake level rise that far was improbable?

Edit: It's also cool, in its own way, to see the old alignment of US-281 just below the surface of the water on Google Earth. IIRC there's also GSV imagery that shows signs along the old routing still sticking out of the water somewhere, too.

Edit 2: Right here, on ND-19.

[SD Mapman]

Regarding the lake, it's currently at about 1,451ft elevation (as of this morning's lake gauge).  It could theoretically rise about another 8 feet, but not much beyond that as once it hits around 1,459ft, it will naturally begin flowing into the Sheyenne River.

This makes me wonder why the roads weren't constructed above that height to begin with. Cheapness? A belief that lake level rise that far was improbable?

Edit: It's also cool, in its own way, to see the old alignment of US-281 just below the surface of the water on Google Earth. IIRC there's also GSV imagery that shows signs along the old routing still sticking out of the water somewhere, too.

Edit 2: Right here, on ND-19.

Because it was really flippin dry back when they made the roads (so the latter answer); this increased water level affected northeast SD as well, creating several lakes where there used to be fields and enlarging others (like this one). This has caused a legal kerfluffle between Game Fish and Parks and the landowners who own the land under the lakes, due to the fact that SD state law never envisioned lakes flooding farmland. The landowners have put up buoys to denote their property lines and try to prosecute fishermen for trespassing... it's a right old mess.

[MNHighwayMan]

This has caused a legal kerfluffle between Game Fish and Parks and the landowners who own the land under the lakes, due to the fact that SD state law never envisioned lakes flooding farmland. The landowners have put up buoys to denote their property lines and try to prosecute fishermen for trespassing... it's a right old mess.

Now that I just don't get... why bother if the land is under water? What's it hurting?

[triplemultiplex]

This has caused a legal kerfluffle between Game Fish and Parks and the landowners who own the land under the lakes, due to the fact that SD state law never envisioned lakes flooding farmland. The landowners have put up buoys to denote their property lines and try to prosecute fishermen for trespassing... it's a right old mess.

Now that I just don't get... why bother if the land is under water? What's it hurting?

Because if they can't have it, then nobody can!!

[SD Mapman]

This has caused a legal kerfluffle between Game Fish and Parks and the landowners who own the land under the lakes, due to the fact that SD state law never envisioned lakes flooding farmland. The landowners have put up buoys to denote their property lines and try to prosecute fishermen for trespassing... it's a right old mess.

Now that I just don't get... why bother if the land is under water? What's it hurting?

Because if they can't have it, then nobody can!!

Property rights are really big here; part of the confusion is that state law says the state (through GF&P) owns lakes, but these are lakes that were once private farmland (to put it simply). I would say that the farmers wouldn't mind selling the land to another private individual, but when government (even state government) tries to take over and build boat ramps and develop recreation opportunities it means war.

Most people in SD (outside of the reservations and the larger cities) have a low opinion of county government, a lower opinion of state government, and an even lower opinion of the Feds.

[discochris]

I know quite a bit about Devils Lake.  A number of my best friends grew up there.

The lake is basically a closed basin. It has no natural inlet, and the natural outlet, Tolna Coulee, via Stump Lake into the Sheyenne River was plugged up because the lake was historically low for about a century until the mid 1990's. At the levels the lake was for basically all of modern history, the water was brackish and high in salinity. When it drastically rose in the early 90's through the early 2000's, is when the mess started.  It's not in the last few years - the high point was in 2011.

The lake doubled in size between 1993 and 1999.  One of my good friends parents had to move their house on the lake twice - the second time into town. Several small towns in the area had to be abandoned.  Driving up there was the freakiest thing. They'd built levees up on the edges of the roads, so you were technically driving below the level of the surface of the lake in places. In high winds (which were common), waves would splash over the earthen dikes onto the roadway. It was scary.

The big issues with managing the lake, is that if allowed to drain into the Sheyenne uncontrolled, it could threaten downstream towns like Valley City, but the legal issue is that if allowed to drain, the Sheyenne runs into the Red River, which flows North into Canada, so it becomes an international issue. With Devils Lake being a closed basin, there was a big concern about that water making its way into points north like Lake Winnipeg etc. and possibly causing damage. It was a disaster.

I think they were finally allowed to pump a certain amount of water out to keep it from flowing uncontrolled, so the lake is more or less stable, but the amount of money the federal government spent up there, they'd have been better off walking away and paying the 7000 or so residents of Devils Lake (the town) to relocate. 

[froggie]

It's not in the last few years - the high point was in 2011.

No...but in the grand scheme of things, it's not much lower than that high point.

Here's a neat chart that shows the historical record of the lake's elevation, going back to infrequent measurements in the mid-1800s and daily measurements since the early 1930s.  The chart also shows the recorded-historic low in 1940, the level in 1992, where Devil's Lake outflows into Stump Lake (1446ft...been there consistently since ca. 2001), and where the lake would naturally flow into the Sheyenne River at 1458ft.

This morning's measurement was 1449.66ft.  That's less than 5ft lower than the recorded-historic high from 2011 (climatological research suggests it's gotten high enough to drain into the Sheyenne at least twice in the last 4000 years), and 3ft higher than what's needed to drain into Stump Lake.

It's also close to 50ft higher than the lake level was in 1940.  Devil's Lake was a really small lake at that time...smaller than an area bounded by ND 57, 45th St NE, and 76th Ave NE (two streets that still partially exist west of ND 57 and south of ND 19).  The western half of Stump Lake was also much smaller back in those days.

[andy3175]

I had no idea of any of this, and I appreciate you all sharing so many great resources about Devil's Lake. Thank you for helping me learn something new. The video of the waves topping the causeway is amazing. The power coop video paints a stark picture of the damage this lake has caused to property as it has risen. Wow.