South Dakota
Reconvene the Minnesota-South Dakota Boundary Waters Commission
Clean Water Action joins the Minnesota River Board in urging Governor Pawlenty and Rounds to reconvene the Boundary Waters Commission for Big Stone Lake.("Board: Minn. should have a say in water appropriation for Big Stone II," 29 January 2008, West Central Tribune).
Why? Our shared resource, Big Stone Lake, is at risk from the water demands of the proposed Big Stone II coal plant. If Big Stone II gets built and we have a dry winter with little or no spring rain we could see a three-foot drop in Big Stone Lake levels. As many know, the lake is already very shallow with an average depth of only eight feet. In this worst case scenario, almost half of the lake levels could be gone to help burn more dirty coal.
So far, Minnesotans have had no say in the decision-making process whereby the South Dakota Water Management Board allowed Otter Tail Power rights to 3.2 billion gallons of water from Big Stone Lake plus 3.2 billion gallons of groundwater per year. Here are the facts.
First, the SD Water Management Board approved all of Otter Tail Power's water requests for Big Stone II. Even though they knew that the total came to more than double the amount required to operate Big Stone I, Big Stone II and the ethanol plant. So the Board approved permits totaling 28,000 acre-feet per year, not the 13,000 "needed."
An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre of land one foot deep, or about what a household of four would consume in a year.
Worse, despite the Boundary Water agreement in place since the 70s prohibiting Otter Tail from taking water from the lake once levels reach 967 feet, Otter Tail Power has received "emergency appropriation" from the state of South Dakota to withdraw water below this level, without any approval from Minnesota.
Furthermore, the 1970s agreement also gives Otter Tail Power the right to take water from Big Stone Lake from October to April whenever the lake levels are greater than or equal to only 965 feet—a three foot drop below current water levels of 968. How is this going to affect lake home-owners, fishing and recreation on Big Stone Lake? Will this undo the millions of dollars of habitat restoration work that Minnesota DNR and the South Dakota DENR have put into the lake? These are serious questions and Minnesotans and South Dakotans have a right to know what is going to happen to this shared resource.
Clean Water Action has and will continue to call for a reconvening of the Minnesota - South Dakota Boundary Waters Commission, and welcomes the Minnesota River Board's repeated efforts to do the same.
To add your voice to the growing calls to Governor Pawlenty and Rounds to reconvene the Minnesota South Dakota Boundary Waters Commission go to Minnesota or South Dakota.
Get more information about the permit application: SD DENR, Water Rights Program Administrative record for Application No. 6846-3 through May 14, 2007, posted May 18, 2007, p8-9 of 214, http://www.state.sd.us/denr/DES/WaterRights/wmb/6846-3.htm, accessed February 5, 2008.
Take Action: Urge the Governor to reconvene the boundary waters commission.
