Canada wants joint effort to clean Red River, Lake Winnipeg
December 14, 2012 at 1:30 am in Grand Forks Herald
Winnipeg residents used to flock to the lake that carries their city’s name, but not so much now. Huge areas of blue-green algae cover much of the northern part of the lake most years. Canadians are looking for solutions. Those solutions are the same ones that can help North Dakota and Minnesota. Continue Reading
This may be the right time for a little give and take. Ask Canada to tear out the road/dam that has been backing water up into the northern part of the state in exchange for cooperation on this issue.
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No. Not at all. Why not use what we have to get their attention on a serious problem?
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spearman, there is a road just north of the border that parallels the border. A few years ago the the Canadians built it up, basically making it a dam. All the water from the south has to flow under a very narrow bridge on this road. This is the bottle neck. It slows the river and holds it back, flooding more of North Dakota and Minnestota.
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In fact you can argue that Manitoba has provided a huge amount of flood relief for us by building & then expanding the Winnipeg Floodway which is a larger project than the Panama Canal excavation. Consider how much water that takes away from the US side of the border by in effect having 2 river channels delivering ND/Mn. water more quickly to Lake Winnipeg than one channel otherwise would thus relieving pressure on ND/MN towns upstream..
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Manitoba does not provide any flood relief to North Dakota or Minnestoa. The Dam/Road they have constructed just north of the border at Pembina causes major flooding in northern North Dakota and Minnesota. I have flown over the area during floods and most of the water is held back in the US and very little land is flooded north of the border. This flooding of farm land in the US that the Canadians cause contributes to their phosphorous problems in Lake Winnipeg.
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Bob, why do you think the Winnipeg floodway doesn’t relieve flood water to the south in US towns? If the water is able to flow through Winnipeg faster it only makes sense water would leave ND/Mn sooner. I’m not necessarily saying it helps the border road caused flooding.
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spearman, the Winnipeg floodway doesn’t relieve flood waters to the south in US towns because there is a bottle neck just north of the border that holds all the water back so the US is flooded longer than it needs to be. By the time the water gets to Winnipeg, it is already through the bottle neck. This is the same Dam/Road that Senator Conrad told the Canadians we could eliminate with B52′s stationed at Grand Forks and Minot if they didn’t want to remove it themselves.
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Bob, what bottleneck just north of the border?
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Spearman please don’t assume we wouldn’t help Manitoba with the algae problem on Lake Winnipeg. I suggested it would be a good opportunity to bring up the topic of the road/dike that has caused problems for many along the Red in the NE part of the state. When you have the right cards you should play them. Why not? What harm could it do to bring up the topic? If you lived in that location wouldn’t you want your state officials to do what they could to help alleviate the problem?
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Obviously it will be discussed & hopefully resolved but you can imagine they see the Devil’s Lake drainage & Missouri River diversion as a bargaining chip too. We haven’t exactly shown them respect over those issues.
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Good point. I have to agree with you there.
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So 3 people disagree that it is the southern part of the lake?
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Maybe Winnipeg could fix their ancient sewer system so that when it rains they quite dumping raw sewage into the river. This is from the Winnipeg papers.
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Good point. Did the art. say if they have done any sewer rebuilding?
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I don’t know if they ever did.
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It may be they think they don’t need new sewers because their water supply comes from the relatively pristine Lake of the Woods via the Winnipeg R. Very shortsighted if that is their attitude.
That sewer overflow could be a big part of the dead zone in Lake Winnipeg.
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Along the Red River’s 100 mile journey from the N.D. border to where it enters Lake Winnipeg, satellite images show that the land is farmed right up to the riverbanks, with little effort to reduce fertilizer run-off into the river. Clean up efforts should begin at home, with Canada showing by example what should be done to clean up their lake.
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The Canadians want their Obamaphone too.
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Nobody has mentioned this so far, so I will. The Priemer of Manitoba should include government officials from Saskatchewan and Alberta in these talks. Water from as far away as Edmonton, Alberta, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan via the North Saskatchewan River, Calgary and Medicine Hat via the South Saskatchewan River, and Regina, Saskatchewan via the Qu’Appelle River that flows into the Assiniboine River that joins the Red River at Winnipeg all contribute their treated effluent to Lake Winnipeg. There is also a HUGE amount of agricultural activity that takes place in both Alberta and Saskatchewan that also drains into these rivers. I would guess that the blue-green algae problem in the north part of Lake Winnipeg is there because the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers join just east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and that eventually drains into the north part of Lake Winnipeg. That river is very large by then…dwarfing the Red River. And the area that this river AND the Assiniboine drains also dwarfs the area that the Red from SD to Pembina drains. Look at the map. From the Rocky Mts. east to Lake Winnipeg. Huge.
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Accd. to the Lake Winnipeg Basin study 68% of the phosphorous/nitrogen comes from the RR watershed not includ. the Assiniboine R. Yes, the prob. is bigger than just the RR but the RR is the biggest contributor accd. to the massive study done by the commission. Of course that does include the RR in Manitoba & Winnipeg needs to clean up its portion of the RR too.
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from the art. “MINNEAPOLIS — Winnipeg residents used to flock to the lake that carries their city’s name, but not so much now”.
“Huge areas of blue-green algae cover much of the northern part of the lake most years.”
It is clear the writer is confused. There are no beaches in the northern part of the lake but there 20 beaches on the south part where Peggers are less interested in going to anymore because of the algae blooms. There are large algae blooms on the north part of the lake too but the art. confuses the issue.
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And … once again … I would be more sympathetic if they tore down the road/dike that is backing water up on the US side of the border.
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