Garrison Diversion Celebrates 50 Years

Written by: Patience Hurley, DKAO

Water pipeline for the Northwest Area Water Supply System.

On January 6, 1966, the Garrison Diversion Unit master contract was signed between the United States and North Dakota's Garrison Diversion Conservancy District.

The signing of this contract was, at the time, considered the best way for North Dakota to create municipal, rural, and industrial water supplies, fish and wildlife habitat, recreation benefits and to bring farmers much needed water from a fully developed irrigation system. Although that vision has not been fully realized, North Dakota has seen a wealth of benefits from the project.

The project first got its roots as one of the principal pieces of the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin Program and was initially contracted as the Missouri-Souris Unit.

First authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1944, the plan was to construct a series of dams on the Missouri River to control flooding, provide power generation, water for irrigation, cities, industry, wildlife and recreation.

Then came the construction of the Garrison Dam, completed in 1953, followed by a number of studies that created substantial changes in the location and acreage of land to be irrigated under the then named Missouri-Souris Unit. With these changes, Congress reauthorized and renamed the project the Garrison Diversion Unit in 1965.

Initial studies of the Garrison Diversion Unit proposed the development of more than 1-million acres of land for irrigation utilizing more than 6,773 miles of canals, construction of the Snake Creek Pumping Plant to transfer water from the Missouri River to the Souris, James, and Sheyenne Rivers and the Devils Lake Basin, and several reservoirs throughout the system. The plan also anticipated water service to 14 cities and provided for a 146,530 acre wildlife plan to mitigate wildlife habitat losses. Ultimately, with soil studies showing much of the proposed soils unfit for irrigation, the reauthorized Unit set its sights on 250-thousand irrigable acres of land.

With all the planned components of the projects outlined, the price tag continued to increase and the timeframe for construction stretched out 60 years. Construction on many of the major components of the plan, to include the McClusky and New Rockford Canals and the Snake Creek Pumping Plant carried on into the mid-1980s, when new environmental and economic concerns arose.

The plan was once again revised with the Garrison Diversion Unit Reformulation Act of 1986. This Act required a comprehensive study of environmental impacts, deauthorized many components, realigned irrigable acres, and set aside money for investigation and construction of a water supply system throughout the State, but specifically to Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota.

The Act also included as a high priority drinking water and industrial use, environmental protections, and recreation. The 1986 Act allowed construction to continue on some of the water supply systems, and activities began on mitigation and wildlife habitat, and municipal, rural and indus­trial projects.

Then came another amendment of the plan in the form of The Dakota Water Resources Act of 2000. This Act passed the Congress on December 15, 2000, and included a program to meet Indian and non-Indian water supply needs in North Dakota. Another key component of this Act was to preserve any existing rights of North Dakota to use water from the Missouri River.

GARRISON DIVERSION TIMELINE:

• December 22, 1944 - Pick-Sloan Flood Control Act was authorized in the Flood Control Act of 1944.
• January 27-28, 1959 - Senate Bill (SB154) passed. The bill would amend the powers and duties of Garrison Diversion Conservancy District directors giving them the authority to become the operating organization for the Garrison Diversion Unit.
• April 5, 1962 – In his conservation message to Congress, President Kennedy specifically mentioned Garrison Diversion Unit as a project that should be authorized by Congress this session.
• August 5, 1965 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill authorizing Garrison Diversion Unit.
• January 26, 1966 – Master Contract between the United States and the Garrison Diversion Conservancy District is signed.
• July 14, 1968 - Groundbreaking of Snake Creek Pumping Plant.
• May 10, 1970 – Groundbreaking ceremony held for the McClusky Canal.
• October 12, 1978 - Contract awarded for earthwork and structures for a fish screen testing facility on a turnout from the McClusky Canal.
• July 5-6, 1984 - Construction on the Lonetree Dam and James River Dike is 40 percent complete.
• April 3-4, 1986 - Burdick-Miller Bill - National interest declaration for irrigation had been deleted and a $12 million Wetlands Trust was created. It deleted portions of the 1944 and 1965 Acts. It also authorizes $200 million for MR&I.
• October 10-11, 1991 - Bureau of Reclamation reported New Rockford Canal is 99 percent complete. Garrison Diversion Conservancy District has officially taken over Operation and Maintenance of the McClusky Canal and New Rockford Canal.
• October 7, 1993 - Dedication - Lonetree Wildlife Management Area.
• July 1-2, 1997 - Lonetree Wildlife Management Area was officially transferred to the ND Game and Fish Department on January 1, 1997.
• December 15, 2000 – Dakota Water Resources Act Bill passed.

Lowhead dam located within the Lonetree Wildlife Management Area in central North Dakota comprises 33,000 acres owned by Reclamation.

Center Pivot Irrigation System utilized within the Garrison Diversion Unit.

Oakes Test Area.

Example of buried pipeline avoiding wetland impacts.

Published on August 14, 2016